TATP

Last tuesday, I went to FBI information session, which the current FBI chmist agent talked about the role of chemists in FBI in these days, especially for the "war on terror". Along with forensic chemistry, FBI focuses their reasearch on explosive bombs.The way explosive bomb works is all about chemical reaction. For example, just by simply mixing chlorine and alcohol, it can explode. Because of the wide range of energetic materials and the many differences in their physical properties, several detection devices detect only certain types of explosives and fail to detect others. That is why we have to take shoes off and put liquid materials on trasparent bag.

Triacetone triperoxide is is known as TATP. It has recently appeared as a weapon in the Middle East and has been used by suicide bombers in Israel, and was chosen as a detonator in 2001 by the thwarted "shoe bomber" Richard Reid. TATP is one of the most sensitive explosives known, being extremely sensitive to impact, temperature change and friction, along with other peroxide-type explosives. Also, TATP can be easily prepared using commercially available starting materials. All it takes is acetone, hydrogen peroxide , and a strong acid like hydrochloric or sulfuric acid. So in the real world, people can easily make this bomb if they have little knowlege of chemistry and lab technique. In the past, many nitrogen-based detection devices used in place like air port fail to detect TATP. I don't know about how well the security devices detect these explosives in current days though.

TATP is the most extreme example currently known, but it may be possible to design molecules that behave as an even more powerful explosive. That is why FBI chemists focus their research on finding possible new bombs and their detection devices.