The Chemistry of Airbags

Airbags save tens of thousands of lives a year. This is an inside look at the chemists who make the propellants that make the airbags work and how they fine-tune the reaction rates to make sure they work perfectly every time. This is part of an MIT video series on chemistry designed to be used by chemistry teachers and students. The material is under strict copyright and cannot be used for any other purpose without the written permission of Boston Science Communications, Inc.

[@landenrice2032]

Yo i manufacture the explosive here in utah!

[@jesscorbin5981]

Sodium and potassium azide ?

[@GinoDelG]

Cool

[@rakeshbharadwaj6334]

Nice,,,

[@overpowah109]

The normal speed is 1.25x

[@hemillyoliveira7426]

muito bom!

[@douro20]

Most of the initiating charges used in airbags contain very toxic sodium azide.

[@douro20]

+A. Perez It may leave some amount of residue, but very little.

[@douro20]

+A. Perez Yes, there is some powder, but it is non-toxic...I forget what type, though. It's there to prevent the components from sticking together.

[@douro20]

There might be a little as a side product from the reaction of sodium to moisture in the air from the sodium azide charge. So little would be made, though, that it would be insignificant.