Abstract
Energetic materials are central to propulsion and detonation technologies, yet their performance is often limited by poor control over energy release across multiple length and time scales. Integrating highly reactive composites with molecular explosives while maintaining structural precision remains challenging. Here we show a three dimensional printing strategy that enables programmable energetic composites by combining highly reactive metastable composite systems with a crystalline high explosive through acoustic-assisted assembly. Uniform coating and intimate interfacial contact produce dense architectures with enhanced thermal reactivity, accelerated pressurisation and increased energy output under confined conditions. Printed filamentary and core–shell structures further enable multistage and geometry-dependent energy release, including sustained combustion, secondary pressurisation and intense fireball formation. Laser-driven and combustion experiments reveal that the energy release characteristics can be systematically tuned by composition and architecture. This work establishes a general route to structure–performance control in energetic materials and highlights additive manufacturing as a powerful platform for designing next-generation reactive and explosive systems.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21975024 to H.R.). The authors acknowledge support from the China Scholarship Council (Grant No. 202406030020 to Y.C.).
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Y.C. and H.R. contributed to the conception and design of the study. Y.C. conducted the experimental work, data acquisition and analysis, and drafted the manuscript. H.X. made significant contributions to the 3D printing section. X.W. assisted with the high-energy laser experiments. H.R. and Q.J. supervised the project. All authors participated in the discussions and critically reviewed the manuscript.
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Chen, Y., Ren, H., Xin, H. et al. Programmable multiscale energy release in synergistic energetic composites with three dimensional printed architectures. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71222-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-71222-4
