Environment-Friendly Formation of High Energetic Nano-Al/Fe2O3 Bilayer by Aqueous Electrophoretic Deposition

In this study, nano-Al/Fe2O3 bilayer was successfully formed via aqueous electrophoretic deposition (EPD) route for the first time. For this formation, the first layer of nano-Fe2O3 was prepared by EPD using the bi-additive of 0.015 mM HCl+10 mg L-1 PEI, and then the second layer of nano-Al was immediately prepared by EPD using 5 mg L-1 PEI as additive. The electrophoretic nano-Al/Fe2O3 bilayer had high heat release of similar to 2800 J g(-1) and exhibited good combustion performance. In comparison with the previous work realized by using organic-solvent-EPD, we believe this study can pave a new way for preparing the bilayers of nanothermites or metallic reactive materials by more cost-effective and environment-friendly aqueous EPD route.