Energetic Ionic Materials: How Green Are They? A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Study

Recently, several energetic ionic salts and liquids have been proposed as novel high-energy materials, propellants, and explosives. The life cycle environmental impacts of these new energetic salts have not been previously studied. Environmental impacts arise both from release of these energetic materials themselves as well as from their synthesis. In this work, for the first time, we report the results of cradle-to-gate life cycle environmental impacts of production of energetic ionic salt 1,2,3-triazolium nitrate and compare it with traditional energetic material 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT). The results indicate that the production processes of ionic salt have a significantly higher environmental footprint than conventional energetic materials. The above result was consistent across all nine impact categories analyzed and can be directly attributed to energy intensive steps needed to prepare the ionic salt and its precursors. The findings suggest that ionic energetic materials have higher environmental impact than TNT from a life cycle perspective.