Fabrication and characterization of PMMA/TiH2 energetic microcapsules with a hollow structure.

Energetic hollow microcapsules (EHMs) were designed as dual-functional sensitizers for emulsion explosive with pentane/TiH2 and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) as core and shell, respectively. SEM and particle size analyses showed that the PMMA/TiH2 energetic microcapsules had spherical morphology, narrow size distribution and internal hollow structure. The results of detonation performance and thermal safety experiments showed that the EHMs could be added in emulsion explosive as composite energetic sensitizers, which could provide "hot spots" and improve the detonation performance of emulsion explosive without affecting its safety. This method introduces an innovative way for the development of insensitive high-energy emulsion explosive, which would be applied to engineering blasting for hard rock mining and some military fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]