Multi-Material Aerosol Jet Printing of Al/Cuo Nanothermites for Versatile Fabrication of Energetic Antennas

Abstract

In the present study, a nanoscale Al/CuO thermite system is patterned using a multi-material aerosol jet printing technology. Morphological analysis of samples manufactured with different printing configurations reveal a strong effect of the printhead design on microstructure and degree of mixing between the constituent materials, providing insight on fundamental mechanisms of inline aerosol-phase mixing during printing. The high-resolution patterning capability of aerosol jet printing is leveraged to fabricate both blended nanoscale Al/CuO thermites and antennas containing the nanothermite, which exhibit rapid and low-energy ignition upon exposure to a 2.45 GHz free space electromagnetic field, characterized by an ignition delay of ≈130 ms and ignition energy of ≈216 J. Moreover, the versatility of this approach is demonstrated by manufacturing compositionally graded samples, establishing multi-material aerosol jet printing as a compelling and versatile platform for microscale energetic device fabrication with broader utility for graded materials. This work shows promise for use of the technique for in situ manufacturing of standalone and integrated energetics and electromagnetic devices.