Summary
The Switchable Reactives and Energetics (SeREne) program aims to develop energetic materials that can be switched between a safe state with high insensitivity and an explodable state with high performance.
SeREne will explore microscale and molecular-scale methods of switchability in explosives, solid propellants, and liquid propellants.
The fine control over energetics proposed in the SeREne program will render more powerful energetics easier and safer to handle and deploy, with implications for the performance of current weapons as well as the manufacture, storage, and transport of energetic materials.
More broadly, SeREne's focus on low-energy switchability could lead to insights important for controlling chemical reactions.