UoH Team Finds Safer Way To Study Explosives
Handling explosive materials is always dangerous, but researchers at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) have found a safer way to study them without triggering blasts.
Hyderabad:Handling explosive materials is always dangerous, but researchers at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) have found a safer way to study them without triggering blasts. Using terahertz spectroscopy — a type of light used to identify chemicals — the UoH team developed a method to examine highly sensitive explosives without directly compressing them into pellets, a step that usually carries high risk.
“Most explosives are very sensitive to shock and pressure,” said Dr Koalla Rajesh, research associate with the Terahertz Research Group at UoH’s School of Physics. “Pressing them into pellets for study can be dangerous, so we avoided that entirely.” Instead, the researchers mixed the explosives with a harmless binding agent to form safer pellets. They then applied Effective Medium Theory (EMT), a scientific model, to extract the original properties of the explosives from this composite sample.
“This approach lets us safely study how these materials behave under terahertz frequencies,” said Prof. Anil Kumar Chaudhary, senior physicist and lead researcher of the study. “That’s crucial in fields like defence, forensic science and material identification.”
Their findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Infrared Physics & Technology, pave the way for safer research into high-energy materials used in detonators and defence applications. “This technique is not just about explosives,” Prof. Chaudhary added. “It shows how advanced physics tools can solve real-world problems, especially where safety is a concern.”
