High-performance primary explosives derived from copper thiolate cluster-assembled materials for micro-initiating device

As an important primary explosive, copper azide is attractive for its outstanding detonation power, but it is limited by high electrostatic sensitivity and inferior ignition ability for use in micro-initiating device. In this work, we report the first copper thiolate cluster-assembled material (Cu(12)bpy, bpy = 4,4'-bipyridine) and successfully employ it as a precursor to prepare copper azide-heteroatoms doped porous carbon hybrids (denoted as CA-HPCH). Given the dense copper content, abundant heteroatoms and periodic structure of Cu(12)bpy, as-obtained CA-HPCH exhibits high copper azide content (89.43%), excellent flame ignition capability (H-50 >= 60 cm) and reduced electrostatic sensitivity (E-50 = 1.1 mJ). The performance is superior to pristine copper azide and surpasses that of most reported primary explosives. Furthermore, the micro-initiating device fabricated by CA-HPCH displays relatively short ignition time (7.0 mu s) and low input ignition energy (0.106 mJ). These findings provides new sight to develop high-performance primary explosives for use in micro-initiators.