Balancing the Trade-Off Between Detonation Power and Safety by Spatially Anchoring Copper Azide on Nitrogen-Doped Reduced Graphene Oxide

Abstract

Developing an effective tailoring approach to overcome the intrinsic trade-off between detonation power and safety in energetic materials is crucial for micro-electromechanical detonation systems but remains challenging. Herein, the anchoring of the high-energy-density yet highly sensitive primary explosive copper azide (CA) onto an N-doped reduced graphene oxide (NrGO) shell (denoted as CA@NrGO) is reported via electronic interactions. This approach simultaneously achieves a three-fold enhancement in mechanical safety, a ≈36-fold improvement in electrostatic safety compared to pure CA, and high detonation capacity. Theoretical calculations reveal that the electronic interaction between NrGO and CA not only facilitate energy dissipation from mechanical forces acting on CA—via intralayer compression and slip, thereby enhancing mechanical safety—but also promote interfacial electron transfer from CA to NrGO, preventing charge accumulation in CA and improving electrostatic safety. Furthermore, the excellent detonation power of CA@NrGO is demonstrated in a micro-detonation device, where 6 mg of CA@NrGO reliably initiated 20 mg of the secondary explosive CL-20. This work highlights how manipulating electronic interactions between energetic materials and their supports contributes to the design of high-energy-density yet safe energetic materials for miniaturized detonation devices.