(ScienceDirect, 2022-11-05)
Qamar-un-Nisa Tariq; Saira Manzoor; Maher-un-Nisa Tariq; Wen-Li Cao
Primary explosives are utilized as a reliable initiator for secondary explosives in an extensive range of
military and civilian operations. Heavyemetalebased primary explosives are moderate performing, more
sensitive, and environmentally hazardous, posing a direct and indirect threat to health and safety.
Therefore, heavyemetalebased primaries have been replaced by environment-friendly metal-based
primary explosives, such as potassium complexes. This review presents not only a summary of the
current progress of new-generation potassium-based primary explosives and their methods of prepa-
ration, energetic properties, and applications, but also a further comparison with traditional primary
explosives. In addition, this work discusses the necessity of heavy metalefree primary explosives and the
major challenges faced in replacing traditional primary explosives.