Research On Al/CuO-based Reactive Energetic Bridge Foils Applied In Exploding Foil Initiator

Influence of aluminum/copper oxide multilayer composite additives on traditional exploding foil initiator is mainly discussed in this paper. RF magnetron sputtering technology was used to prepare aluminum/copper oxide multilayer composite materials, and the performance of the materials were characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM), Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). Five kinds of multilayer bridge foils samples were prepared by standard lithographic technology, and the electrical explosion parameters were determined by testing system designed. Finally, the average velocities of slappers, generated by expanding of bridge foils and shearing of barrel, were measured by the piezoelectricity of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) thin film. The main results are as follows:(1) XRD revealed that the as-deposited aluminum/copper oxide multilayer composite materials exhibited high purity with no peaks of alumina or CuxO found. FESEM demonstrated distinct layer structure and uniform particle size that ranged from 20 nm to 50 nm. SPM showed that average roughness and root mean square of multilayer films were only 0.44 nm and 0.55 nm, respectively. DSC test gave a reaction heat of 2024 kJ/g when ratio between aluminum and copper oxide equaled 1:2, and activation energies of two reaction processes were calculated to be 256.8kJ/mol and 339.2 kJ/mol respectively.(2) Curves of electrical explosion parameters showed that matching voltage of A,B samples existed between 400 V and 600 V, while for C,D samples it was between 600 V and 800 V. Based on the observation by high speed camera, fierce combustion phenomenon was found for bridge foils with aluminum/copper oxide additives. Diagnostication of temperature showed the excitation temperature for C,D,E bridge foils were 4500K-6000K, 6000K-7500K and 9000K-10000K, respectively.(3) Velocity measurement system was constructed based on the piezoelectricity of PVDF thin film, whose relative uncertainty was within±2%. Compared with traditional copper bridge foils, an significant increase of average velocity was not found for those with aluminum/copper oxide additives, and the application of mere aluminum/copper oxide as exploding bridge foils proved to be inapplicable.