Life Of Navin

Here's some news for all you guys who feel explosives are waaaaaay too dangerous. Researchers in Germany at the Munich University have said that new explosives that they are developing could be more powerful yet safer to handle than TNT and other conventional explosives and would also be environmentally friendly.

TNT, RDX, Nitroglycerine and other explosives commonly used in military and industrial applications often generate many toxic gases upon detonation that are known to pollute the environment. Moreover, the explosives themselves are toxic and and generally highly unstable (to physical shock and electrical sparks) and can find their way into the environment due to incomplete detonation .

These scientists have turned to a class of materials called "Tetrazoles" to make safer, more environmentally friendly explosives. These derive most of their explosive energy from nitrogen instead of carbon as in the case of TNT.Tiny bombs were made from two promising tetrazoles with research names HBT and G2ZT. These materials proved less apt to explode accidentally than conventional explosives.

After the bombs were detonated in the laboratory, G2ZT has proved itself to be as powerful than TNT, and HBT proved comparable to RDX. Also, 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, researcher Thomas Klapötke said.

These compounds have great potential, especially for large caliber naval and tank guns --Thomas Klapötke