Copper Microchips Make Excellent Explosives

Who else needs explosives most, except the army? Well, many people do if you ask me, except most of them will never get their hands on them. And after the developing of this new small copper structure by Georgia Tech Research Institute, it might not matter anymore if you have the explosive or not, as long as you cannot detonate it. Designed in order to improve the reliability of the classical detonators, and to reduce the size of military equipment, the copper structure includes intricate nanostructure, chemically converted so that it behaves like an explosive.

A type of micro-electromechanical device, the newly designed fuse can be easily manufactured, through currently available technological processes, and integrated into microchips only a few millimeters in diameter, similar to the traditional silicon microchips used to create computer microprocessors.

The basic manufacturing technological process involves converting copper oxides pored in regular pattern with the help of polymers, used to control the viscosity of the copper oxide paste, into a pure stable structure, by removing the regular pattern template through thermochemical reactions.

Though improved by Jason Nadler from GTRI, the material was first developed by the Indian Head Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, synthesized in a powder process that had an extremely weak structure and uneven pattern; thus, it was unpredictable in providing with information regarding the scale of the explosion it would provide, or even if it works.

Not only did Nadler improve the fabrication technique of the newly designed copper fuse, but he has brought a great contribution to understanding how copper nanostructures behave, and he could provide with multiple commercial applications. Furthermore, the technique designed by him enables the production of low cost and extremely reliable detonators, which can be used to design lighter and safer weapons. The usage of safer detonators is critical while trying to avoid the risk of collateral damage and unnecessary casualties.

Detonators that are used commonly today make use of large quantities of explosives in order to initiate the explosion; the explosives are heavy metals that produce a lot of toxic byproducts during the production process and the actual blast initiation meaning safer weapons can be manufactured without worrying about the heavy sensitive quantity of primary charge.