Uncovering secret structure to safer explosives

A team of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has shown that the structure of microscopic pores in high explosive materials can significantly impact performance and safety. These findings — published recently as the cover article in the journal Propellants, Explosives, Pyrotechnics — open the door to the possibility of tuning high explosives by engineering their microstructure.

“The funny thing about explosives is that they have these little defects and pores and holes,” said research scientist Keo Springer, lead author on the paper and researcher at LLNL’s High Explosives Applications Facility. “It turns out that that’s an important part of what makes them work. Explosive performance, in a broad sense, isn’t just a chemistry question, it’s a microstructure question.”