Energetic materials research using scanning electron microscopy

A key-technique for the research of energetic materials is scanning electron microscopy. In this paper several examples are given of characterization studies on energetic materials, including a solid composite propellant formulation. Results of the characterization of energetic materials using scanning electron microscopy comprise the visualization of internal defects in energetic RDX crystals and in-situ tensile tests of an AP/Al/HTPB propellant. The results show that scanning electron microscopy is a robust and flexible characterization technique in the area of energetic materials.