Los compuestos químicos presente en los airbags de los automóviles

Abstract

Airbags are a landmark in automotive passive safety; their deployment relies on tightly controlled chemical reactions that generate large volumes of inert gas within milliseconds. Sodium azide (NaN₃) historically dominated as gas generant; however, its toxicity and thermal instability fostered safer alternatives such as nitroguanidine, guanidine nitrate, and hybrid formulations with ammonium nitrate or compressed gas inflators. This article offers a critical review of the chemical evolution of airbag inflators, examines the thermodynamics and kinetics of core reactions, discusses toxicological and environmental risks, and evaluates sustainability driven trends—green chemistry, modular design and end of life recycling—that will shape the industry’s future. We conclude that, although recent advances substantially reduce exposure to hazardous by products and improve energetic efficiency, challenges remain in post deployment waste management and global regulatory harmonisation.

Keywords

Airbag

Azida de sodio

Compuestos químicos

Seguridad automotriz

Sustitutos ecológicos

Airbag

Chemical compounds

Ecological subtitutes

Sodium azide

Vehicle safety

References

American Chemical Society. (2019). How Airbags Work. https://www.acs.org

Bender, D. A., & Botham, K. M. (2021). Harper: Bioquímica ilustrada (31.ª ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

Betterton, E. A. (2003). Destino ambiental de la azida de sodio derivada de las bolsas de aire de los automóviles. *Reseñas Críticas en Ciencia y Tecnología Ambiental, 33*(4), 423–458.

Brown, T. L., LeMay, H. E., Bursten, B. E., & Murphy, C. J. (2020). Química: La ciencia central (13.ª ed.). Pearson Educación.

Chang S, Lamm SH. Efectos en la salud humana de la exposición a la azida de sodio: una revisión y análisis de la literatura. Revista Internacional de Toxicología. 2003; 22(3):175-186. doi:10.1080/10915810305109

Fattah, H. (1996). Airbags-Sodium azide dumping?. Chemical Week, 158(11), 45-45.
Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología. (2021). Avances en la química automotriz. https://www.fecyt.es

SAE International. (2020). Advances in Automotive Safety Technologies. https://www.sae.org

Seo, Y.D., Chung, S.H., Yoh, J.J., 2011. Automotive airbag inflator analysis using the measured properties of modern propellants. Fuel 90 (4), 1395–1401.

Smith, W. F. (2017). Principios de ciencia e ingeniería de materiales. McGraw-Hill Education.

Universidad Metropolitana de Educación, Ciencia y Tecnología (UMECIT). (2022). Repositorio Institucional UMECIT. https://repositorio.umecit.edu.pa

Xu, Q., et al. (2019). Development of New Gas Generants for Automotive Airbag Systems. Journal of Energetic Materials, 37(4), 301–316.

Zhang, L. (2018). Environmental Considerations in Automotive Pyrotechnics. Automotive Safety Journal, 12(2), 145–160.

Zukas, J. A. (2016). Explosive Effects and Applications. Springer.

Publication Facts

Publication Facts

Metric

This article

Other articles

Peer reviewers 

0

2.4

Reviewer profiles  N/A

Author statements

Author statements

This article

Other articles

Data availability 

N/A

16%

External funding 

No

32%

Competing interests 

N/A

11%

Metric

This journal

Other journals

Articles accepted 

0%

33%

Days to publication 

33

145

Indexed in

• GS

Editor & editorial board

profiles

Academic society 

Universidad Metropolitana de Educación, Ciencia y Tecnología

Publisher 

Universidad Metropolitana de Educación, Ciencia y Tecnología

To learn about these publication facts, click

PF is maintained by the Public Knowledge Project