Novel electrophoretic assembly design of nano-aluminum@tungsten trioxide (nano-Al@WO3) energetic coating with controllable exothermic performance

The fabrication of functional nanocomposite films by electrically driven techniques is an emerging method that has attracted increasing research interest because of advantages such as easy operation, low-cost, no secondary pollution. In this study, electrophoretic assembly technique (EAT) was firstly developed to design the promising novel nano-aluminum@tungsten trioxide (nano-Al@WO 3 ) energetic coating with even distribution of nanoparticles under room temperature and pressure conditions, using the mixed liquor of isopropyl alcohol, PEG-1000, and polyethyleneimine as the optimal dispersion liquid for EAT. High crystallinity and purity of product was demonstrated by X-ray diffractometer. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results that the obtained Al@WO 3 was an outstanding high-energy coating with a high output of heat (~ 2400 J/g) due to the sufficient thermite reaction between nano-Al and WO 3 particles, and the heat-release process of product can be highly controlled by adjusting the solid loading concentration ratio of nano-Al@WO 3 before EAT. Thus, the fabrication method of EAT proposed here has great potentials to high-efficient construction or design of various energetic nanocomposite coatings such as thermite and bimetallic reactive composites with wide applications.