Selectively-deposited energetic materials: A feasibility study of the piezoelectric inkjet printing of nanothermites

This work investigated the utility of three piezoelectric inkjet printers as energetic material deposition systems, focusing on the ability of each system to achieve the seamless integration of energetic material into small-scale electronic devices. Aluminum copper (II) oxide nanothermite was deposited using the three deposition systems. The printers were evaluated based on their robustness to energetic ink solids loading, drop formation reliability, drop quality degradation over time, and the energetic performance of the deposited material. These metrics correlate to the feasibility of a deposition system to successfully achieve high sample throughput while maintaining the energetic performance of the printed material. After initial system testing, the PipeJet P9 500 μm pipe was used to demonstrate the successful deposition of nanothermite in varying geometric patterns with micrometer precision. From these samples, preliminary propagation speed measurements were obtained, which showed a correlation between the printed line widths and burning rates.