Russian scientists are successfully developing smokeless gunpowder for automobile airbags, under ISTC Project ¹ 1882. This powder combusts almost instantaneously at the most important moment, but the airbag will fill with a gas that is harmless to the passenger, not like known compositions today.

The Russian scientists, from the Institute of Chemical Physics RAS, propose to make car safety airbags even safer. Their theoretical and practical investigations have established of which compounds the powder, to combust at the moment of impact in an accident, should be comprised, so that the airbags fill instantly with gases that are harmless to humans and the environment.

“Despite the fact that the vehicles of well-respected car manufacturers have long since been equipped with safety airbags, the gas-generating compositions

for them remain far from perfect,” says one of the project authors, Candidate of Chemical Science David Lempert. “The problem is that the requirements of these compositions are incredibly strict, numerous and at times difficult to make compatible.”

The multiplicity of these requirements did not discourage the scientists. This is no surprise; the specialists from the Institute of Chemical Physics RAS have unique experience in the creation of regular powders and solid rocket fuels. To begin with they calculated theoretically from the atoms of which elements and in which groups of interconnected atoms the powder should comprise, to satisfy the main requirements. It became clear that atoms of just four elements should form the basis: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. A computer program, developed by the authors for mathematical modeling of the powder compositions,

produced a number of potentially suitable structures. Some have already been synthesized and tested; others still await synthesis and testing.

However, the researchers are not limiting their attention to the development of a smokeless and non-toxic chemical composition for safety airbags. They have also devised how to form the charge in such a way so that it combusts in fractions of a second. Verified experiments confirm that they have succeeded in increasing the velocity of the charge combustion by several times. Thus, the “inflatable protection” under the new recipe as developed by the Russian scientists, works faster and more reliably than the traditional solution. And, although the passenger or driver will not have to spend much time in the vehicle in case of an accident, smoke and toxic gases from the airbag will cause them no harm — there simply will not be any.

This program began three years ago and it involves scientists from eight countries. The task is immense. A new standard mass will be created with maximum possible precision on a modern level of development for world science and technology.

Of the multitude of measurable values, the most important and the most basic, are time, length and mass. Standards of mass and length were made over one hundred years ago, in the form of the standard kilogram and the standard meter; they are held at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris. The standard hour was determined through the period of the Earth’s rotation. Alas, however, it transpired that these standards are unstable. For over 50 years scientists from across the world have been trying to create an ideal standard mass: to produce a solid that consists of a known quantity of identical atoms, and weigh it. The problem lays in there not being a suitable material.

Now, however, thanks to the efforts of Russian scientists, such a material is available. More precisely, it will become available in the required quantity within the next few years. It is superpure silicon — pure in the sense that the vast majority of its composition is made up of silicon-28 atoms. As far as other impurities are concerned, including other silicon isotopes, they may be found in proportions not exceeding one atom for every 10 million silicon- 28 atoms.

The first 140 grams of the superpure monoisotopic silicon have been obtained in the framework of an international project on the creation of a new standard mass. It is superpure silicon, 99.99% comprised of the silicon-28 isotope. There will be 5 kg of such silicon in three years time. This will be sufficient to produce a kilogram sphere, the number of silicon-28 atoms in which will be known precisely. At last the outdated weight held at the Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris will be replaced by a standard

in which not only the mass, but also the number of atoms will be defined to the maximum achievable limit of accuracy for world science today.

For the first time scientists will be able to clarify one of the most fundamental chemical values – the Avogadro Constant. However, this project promises a solution not only to fundamental tasks. Development of the technology to obtain superpure silicon isotopes could lead to changes in microelectronics that are no less than revolutionary, just like the changes that eventually enabled the power and rapid action of three-storey high giant computers to be replaced by notebook machines.