A Review on Environmentally Friendly Energetic Materials

Since the number of threats originated from chemicals and chemical processes to human health and environment is not negligible, green chemistry has attracted the attention of researchers and scientists. It seems that application of the green chemistry principles in all stages of design energetic materials and production processes, optimizing or disposal of wastes and industrial effluents would be required in future. In this paper, different aspects of Green Chemistry’s attitude to various energetic materials, including explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics will be discussed. Green-energetic materials must be produced based on twelve principles of green chemistry. To this end, the production waste’s life-cycle, testing and maintenance of energetic materials should be minimized. The pollutants originated from combustion, explosion or decomposition of these compounds should also be reduced to the least amount. Energetic materials with high nitrogen content are one of the main classes of energetic materials that have attracted many attentions in this area of science. Since nitrogen gases are the major components of the products formed through the decomposition, ignition or explosion of these materials, they are called green materials. Another goal of scientists in this field is to formulate lead- and halogen-free propulsions and pyrotechnics. This paper also considers the main efforts to achieve green oxidizers and binders as alternatives for current energetic formulations.