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11 July 2006

A2 writes:

This is from the SEC release on the Israeli company looking to sell TATP detectors.  The USPTO has the same recipe under patent 6,767,717 [excerpt below].

I wonder what Diane ("screw the first") Feinstein thinks of this publication. [Feinstein has complained of bombmaking information on the Internet.]

For example, when a mixture of acetone, hydrogen peroxide and small amounts of a mineral acid such as sulfuric acid is left for several hours at room temperature, white crystals of triacetone triperoxide, commonly referred to as TATP, and diacetone diperoxide, commonly referred to as DADP, are formed.

These crystals are collected and can be stashed with water or with 10% sodium carbonate solution. TATP and DADP are powerful initiators by themselves and can be used as the main filler in home-made detonators. They are quite unstable explosives and may explode under rough handling, scratching with metals or by sparks and open flame, even when they contain up to 25% water or even when immersed in water. The explosive intensity of TATP is approximately 5/8 that of TNT.  This material is quite volatile, unless used shortly after its manufacture, should be stored in a cool, dark dry place.

Another commonly used peroxide based explosive is hexamethylenetriperoxidediamine, commonly referred to as HMTD. It can be prepared by treating hexamethylenetetramine with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a weak acid, such as citric acid, in order to neutralize the liberated ammonia.

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United States Patent 6,767,717

Itzhaky , et al. July 27, 2004

Method and kit for the detection of explosives

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention concerns a method of detecting peroxide-based explosives and a kit for use in this method.

Improvised explosive devices based on peroxide containing materials have increasingly been used in recent years by various terrorist organizations, especially in Israel, as well as in the UK and the USA. The main reason is that such peroxide-based explosives can be easily "home-made" using inexpensive, readily available starting materials which can be purchased in most hardware and paint stores, even in bulk quantities. One class of such peroxide-based explosives can be easily produced by reacting various carbonyl compounds (e.g. ketones, aldehydes and their derivatives) with hydrogen peroxide under acid catalysis. For example, when a mixture of acetone, hydrogen peroxide and small amounts of a mineral acid, e.g. sulfuric acid, is left for several hours at room temperature, white crystals of triacetone triperoxide (hereinafter "TATP") and diacetone diperoxide (hereinafer "DADP") are formed by the following reaction: ##STR1##

These crystals are collected and can be stashed with water or with 10% sodium carbonate solution. TATP and DADP are powerful initiators by themselves and can be used as the main filler in home-made detonators. They are quite unstable explosives and may explode under rough handling, scratching with metals or by sparks and open flame, even when they contain up to 25% water or even when immersed in water. The explosive intensity of TATP is approximately 5/8 that of TNT. This material is quite volatile, unless used shortly after its manufacture, should be stored in a cool, dark dry place. It has been reported that at room temperature TATP loses 2/3 of its weight within 14 days and at 50.degree. C. it evaporates completely within 40 days.

Another commonly used peroxide based explosive is hexamethylenetriperoxidediamine (hereinafter "HMTD"). It can be conveniently prepared by treating hexamethylenetetramine with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a weak acid, such as citric acid, in order to neutralize the liberated ammonia. The reaction can be represented as follows: ##STR2##

HMTD is almost insoluble in water and in common organic solvents at room temperature. It is too active and too unstable to be of commercial use as an explosive.

Although many peroxide containing materials of the above-described type are known for more than 70 years, no satisfactory method for their detection has been suggested to date. The detection of peroxide-based explosives is particularly difficult because all these materials do not contain nitro groups or any other nitrogen oxide functional groups. Since most of the currently available explosive detectors are based on the detection of nitro groups, they cannot be employed for detection of peroxide-based materials. Consequently, and in view of the increased use of such peroxide-based explosives by terrorists, especially in the Middle East as well as in other parts of the world, there exists an urgent need for highly sensitive method, and devices for the early detection of peroxide-based explosives and improvised explosive devices employing them.