Michael Goebel / Ludwig-Maximilians University
Bomb explosions are deadly and also cause serious damages to the environment. The reason is that, today’s bombs are usually made of explosive materials such as TNT or RDX, which release highly toxic byproducts - toxic gases - to the environment upon detonation. In addition, these explosive materials are highly sensitive to hard impacts and electric sparks and therefore, are extremely dangerous and must be handled very carefully.
As a solution for the non-environmental friendly bomb explosions problem, a group of scientists in Germany have recently come up an alternative:
- “Environmental friendly bombs” have been created as an alternative for currently existing bombs.
- These bombs are made using a group of different type of explosives - A newly explored group of materials called tetrazoles
- Tetrazoles derive most of their explosive energy from nitrogen unlike TNT, which uses carbon as their energy source
- Researchers have successfully tested tiny bombs made of two types of tetrazoles called HBT and G2ZT
- Advantage 1: “Environmental friendly bombs” release fewer amounts of toxic byproducts to the environment than conventional explosive materials.
- Advantage 2: This new group of explosives are as powerful as TNT and RDX.
- Advantage 3: HBT and G2ZT are less sensitive to physical shocks than conventional explosives and therefore the possibility of happening a bomb explosion accidentally, is less.
More about the research: (More about green bomb explosion)
After the bombs were detonated in the laboratory, G2ZT also proved as powerful than TNT, and HBT more powerful than TNT and comparable to RDX, said researcher Thomas Klapötke, a chemist at the University of Munich in Germany.
In initial experiments, G2ZT and HBT produced fewer toxic byproducts than common explosives. Still, they did generate some dangerous hydrogen cyanide gas. But mixing these compounds with oxidizers not only avoids making hydrogen cyanide, but also improved performance, Klapötke said.
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