Abstract: Black powder is one of the most common explosives in explosion cases, and its detection is of great importance in the fight against crime. Despite the relative maturity of black powder detection methods, there are still many challenges, such as high sensitivity detection of trace explosive residues of black powder, and source inference of black powder. Based on the components and production process of black powder, and focusing on the two detection purposes of the components analysis and source inference of black powder before and after explosion, the detection methods of molecules (KNO₃, sulfur, charcoal, etc.), ions (K⁺, NO₃^-, S^2-, etc.) and elements (nitrogen, oxygen, carbon, etc.) in black powder were systematically summarized, including traditional detection methods, spectroscopy, chromatography and mass spectrometry, etc., and the problems in black powder detection and possible future research directions were discussed, aiming to providing reference for the research and criminal investigation of black powder (40 ref. cited).