Peroxide Based Organic Explosives

Abstract

In recent years progressively increasing terrorist activities, which use homemade explosives; such as acetone peroxide and other cyclic organic peroxides have led to worldwide awareness by security and defense agencies. Then the development of methodologies for the detection of cyclic organic peroxides have become an urgent need. Until quite recently, most of the current technology in use for trace detection of explosives had been unable to detect these energetic compounds. Differences in physical properties between cyclic organic peroxides is the main barrier for the development of a general method for analysis and detection of the peroxide explosives. In this short review, the most relevant contributions related to preparation, characterization and detection of the most important cyclic organic peroxides have been presented. It also includes few recent investigations about the toxicity and metabolism of some peroxide explosives.

Characterization of 2-Butanone Peroxide Oligomeric Profiles and Their Associated Gas-Phase and Solution-Phase Rearrangement Products by Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry for Forensic Applications

“…Additionally, Matyá and Selesovsky noted that mixtures containing peroxide-based explosives and ammonium nitrate may have a significantly higher power than that of the pure peroxide (approximately a 106% TNT eq for MEKP/ammonium nitrate mixtures) when mixed at a near zero oxygen balance . TATP and HMTD have no modern commercial use and are synthesized by the hobbyist or terrorist in clandestine laboratories using precursors that are readily available; these explosives are often seen in conjunction with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by the forensic community . Unlike TATP and HMTD, MEKP has a commercial application in the polymer industry, where it is typically generated and consumed in situ to promote cross-linking of unsaturated polyester resins. , MEKP is also sold as a hardener for resin systems; consumer products using MEKP as the hardener are sold as formulated systems that include a desensitizer, which is challenging to physically separate from the explosive.…”