Fabrication and characterization of mussel-inspired layer-by-layer assembled CL-20-based energetic films via micro-jet printing

Three-dimensional (3D) micro-jet printing is a droplet deposition technique based on liquid-phase materials. To improve the deposition density and performance of energetic films with micro/nanoscale on an energetic chip, polydopamine (PDA) was utilized as a linker bridge to induce the in-situ self-assembly of CL-20-based energetic film via 3D micro-jet printing. The self-assembly was extensively characterized by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), SEM, power-XRD, XPS, and DSC. The performance of the self-assembled film was verified by the mechanical properties and detonation properties, and a possible self-assembly mechanism in the layer-by-layer micro-jet printing process was proposed. The results indicated PDA-induced self-assembly enhanced the physical entanglement between the binders and energetic crystal, reduced the porosity from 15.87% to 11.28%, and improved the elastic modulus and the detonation performance of the CL-20-based energetic film. This work proposes a novel and promising energetic film design and fabrication strategy to enhance the interaction between the energetic composite layers in the micro-jet printing process.