Highly explosive nanosilicon-based composite materials

We present a highly explosive binary system based on porous silicon layers with their pores filled with solid oxidizers. The porous layers are produced by a standard electrochemical etching process and exhibit properties that are different from other energetic materials. Its production is completely compatible with the standard silicon technology and full bulk silicon wafers can be processed and therefore a large number of explosive elements can be produced simultaneously. The application-relevant parameters: the efficiency and the long-term stability of various porous silicon/oxidizer systems have been studied in details. Structural properties of porous silicon, its surface termination, the atomic ratio of silicon to oxygen and the chosen oxidizers were optimized to achieve the highest efficiency of the explosive reaction. This explosive system reveals various possible applications in different industrial fields, e.g. as a novel, very fast airbag igniter. (c) 2005 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.