Impact of nano particles on safety and environment for fireworks chemicals

Abstract

Pyrotechnic devices, commonly known as fireworks, have a huge popularity. The sonic effect produced by the fireworks mainly depends upon the chemical composition of the mixtures and the particle size. Specifically this means that the larger the particle size, the more the quantity of powder mixture is to be used. Therefore, a high quality product which can produce the expected noise level with lesser quantity of chemicals is a major challenge faced by the pyrotechnic industry. This can be achieved by adopting either of the two approaches namely, one, by changing the chemical composition or, the other, by changing the particle size. At present the particle size of the chemical composition is at the micron level. However, by converting the composition into nano size, the volume of mixture used will be greatly reduced without compromising the sound level produced. The major advantage of using nano size powders is that it is essentially environmental friendly, producing less pollution and ensuring a cleaner environment. Concurrently, the major risk in using nano size powders is that it is a fire hazard. In this paper, the pros and cons of using nano powders in the manufacture of fireworks have been analyzed, collecting data from various research works and presenting the same as a review article.