Electrophoretic deposition of hybrid organic-inorganic PTFE/Al/CuO energetic film

Thermite films are typical energetic materials (EMs) and have great value in initiating explosive devices. However, research in thermite film preparation is far behind that of research in thermite powders. Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) is an emerging, rapid coating method for film fabrication, including of energetic composite films. In this work, a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)/Al/CuO organic-inorganic hybrid energetic film was successfully obtained using the above method for the first time. The addi-tion of lithocholic acid as a surfactant into the electroplating suspension enabled PTFE to be charged. The combustion and energy release were analyzed by means of a high-speed camera and differential scan-ning calorimetery (DSC). It was found that the combustion process and energy release of PTFE/Al/CuO were much better than that of Al/CuO. The main reason for the excellent combustion performance of the hybrid PTFE/Al/CuO system was that the oxidability of PTFE accelerated the redox reaction between Al and CuO. The prepared PTFE/Al/CuO film was also employed as ignition material to fire a B-KNO3 explosive successfully, indicating considerable potential for use as an ignition material in micro-ignitors. This study sheds light on the preparation of fluoropolymer-containing organic-inorganic hybrid ener-getic films by one-step electrophoretic deposition.(c) 2021 China Ordnance Society. Publishing services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

In this study, a PTFE/Al/CuO organic-inorganic hybrid energetic film was successfully prepared for the first time using electrophoretic deposition. The addition of lithocholic acid as a surfactant enabled PTFE to be charged. The combustion process and energy release of PTFE/Al/CuO were found to be superior to Al/CuO due to the oxidability of PTFE accelerating the redox reaction between Al and CuO. This research sheds light on the preparation of fluoropolymer-containing organic-inorganic hybrid energetic films by one-step electrophoretic deposition.