Group-4

Explosives and Classification

of Explosives ,Power Index
 Explosives 
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great
amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly,
usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An
explosive charge is a measured quantity of explosive material, which may either be
composed solely of one ingredient or be a mixture containing at least two
substances. 
• The potential energy stored in an explosive material may, for example, be 
• chemical energy, such as nitroglycerin or grain dust
• pressurized gas, such as a gas cylinder, aerosol can, or BLEVE 
• nuclear energy, such as in the fissile isotopesuranium-235and plutonium-
239 
 Classification
• By sensitivity
• Primary 
• A primary explosive is an explosive that is extremely sensitive to stimuli
such as impact, friction, heat, static electricity, or electromagnetic radiation.
Some primary explosives are also known as contact explosives. A relatively
small amount of energy is required for initiation. As a very general rule,
primary explosives are considered to be those compounds that are more
sensitive than PETN. 
• Primary explosives are often used in detonators or to trigger larger charges
of less sensitive secondary explosives A small quantity, usually milligrams, is
sufficient to initiate a larger charge of explosive that is usually safer to
handle. 
• Secondary
• A secondary explosive is less sensitive than a primary explosive and requires
substantially more energy to be initiated. Because they are less sensitive, they are usable
in a wider variety of applications and are safer to handle and store. Secondary explosives
are used in larger quantities in an explosive train and are usually initiated by a smaller
quantity of a primary explosive. 
• Examples of secondary explosives include TNT and RDX. 
• Tertiary 
• Tertiary explosives, also called blasting agents, are so insensitive to shock that they
cannot be reliably detonated by practical quantities of primary explosive, and instead
require an intermediate explosive booster of secondary explosive. These are often used
for safety and the typically lower costs of material and handling. The largest consumers
are large-scale mining and construction operations. 
EXPLOSIVE POWER AND POWER
INDEX of Explosives 
• In an explosive reaction, heat and gases are liberated. The volume of gas V and the heat of
explosion Q can both be calculated independently but these values can be combined to give the
value for the explosive power as shown in Equation 5.12. 

The value for the explosive power is then compared with the explosive power of a standard explosive
(picric acid) resulting in the power index, as shown in Equation 5.13, where data for Q (picric acid) and V (picric
acid) are 3250 kJ kg ?  and 0.831 dm   g ? , respectively. 
1 3 1
The power index values of some primary and secondary explosive substances are presented in Table

Explosive substance  Q v/kJ g ?1  V/dm 3 g ?1  Q V 10 4  Power index/% 

Primary explosives         

Mercury fulminate  1755  0.215  37.7  14 

Lead styphnate  1885  0.301  56.7  21 

Lead azide  1610  0.218  35.1  13 

Secondary explosives         

Nitroglycerine  6194  0.740  458.4  170 

EGDN  6658  0.737  490.7  182 

PETN  5794  0.780  451.9  167 

RDX  5036  0.908  457.3  169 

THE USE OF FORENSIC CHEMISTRY IN
DETECTION OF EXPLOSIVES.
A detailed investigation of a blast site will reveal crucial clues to lead the
investigation. By thoroughly documenting the condition of the scene,
including any structural damage and injuries or fatalities, investigators
can slowly piece together what occurred.
Fragments of an exploded device will often be left intact, including
switches, wiring, timers and circuit boards. If the timer was made from a
unique type of watch, for instance, that information could help narrow
the search for who created the device or where it may have come from.
On applying some forensic chemistry applications on the substance found at
the spot forensic experts can identify the type and nature of explosives.
Gas Chromatography
Gas chromatography is frequently used for the identification of organic
explosive compounds since the technique has high selectivity and
sensitivity towards organic constituent analysis. However, the GAS
CHROMATOGRAPHY instruments prohibit non-volatile, mixture water
samples and sparked samples to prevent the column from bearing the
damage. Because of that, extra precaution on sample preparation is
needed for every process. The detectors used combined with GAS
CHROMATOGRAPHY are electron capture detection, thermal energy ,
mass spectrometry, and tandem mass spectrometry.
High performance liquid chromatography
High performance liquid chromatography is commonly used to detect
the organic explosive compounds that are non-volatile. HPLC is often
used as the instrument for analysis of explosives as it is amenable for
the analysis compounds that have low volatility, highly sensitive to heat
and high molecular weight [55]. This will overcome the problem of
detection of explosives that are thermally unstable and resulting in
decomposition products in the vapors. The common detector for HPLC
is ultraviolet detector (HPLC-UV). The wide range of HPLC detection
between 190-800 nm provides an excellent range of separation. HPLC-
UV identifies explosives from porous materials. By changing the
temperature and methanol-water mobile phase ratio in HPLC system,
separation of RDX, TNT and PETN was successfully achieved within 20
minutes.
Ion chromatography
Ion chromatography method was used to separate inorganic anions and
cations found in post blast residues from homemade inorganic
explosives as one of the types that was frequently used in terrorism
attacks. On conducting an analysis of inorganic explosives on pipe
bomb and soil samples via Ion chromatography using suppressed IC on
a Dionex column with potassium hydroxide as eluent for anions. For
cations analysis, a Dionex SCS 1 column was employed using oxalic
acid/acetonitrile as eluent for detection. Both anions (Cl- , ClO4 - , ClO3
- , NO3 - and SO4 2- ) and cations (NH4 + , Na+ and K+ ) were
successfully separated and detected.
X-Ray
X-ray powder diffraction and X-ray fluorescence
are non-destructive methods for the composition
analysis of the crystalline materials. Both of the
methods are different but complementary to each
other whereby X-ray powder diffraction is used to
analyze the phases or compounds meanwhile X-
ray fluorescence is utilized for the analysis of the
elemental composition of the crystalline material.
There are many difficulties involved in the identification of materials and devices after an explosion.
Thus, a wide range of analytical techniques or instrumentations are currently available and
applicable for analysis of explosive residues. The choices of method used are dependent upon the
type of sample collected and the types of analytes to be examined and studied.

Evidence-------------------------------------------------------------------------Preferred method for identification of material

Black powder Ion chromatography/mass spectrometry (IC/MS)

Post-blast debris Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS)
Soil High Performance liquid chromatographyatmospheric
and Solvating gas chromatography with thermal
energy analyzer (SGC/TEA)
TNT, dynamite Gas chromatography with electron captured detector
(GC/ECD) and Ion chromatography (IC)
Hair Gas chromatography with electron captured detector
(GC/ECD)
Semtex plastic explosive(SPE) Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FTIR
Improvised explosive devices (IED) Fourier transform-infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)
Peroxide explosive High Performance liquid chromatographyatmospheric
 Case study on Explosives

This case study is of fire that took place on Dec,2010 at

ASL factory a metal recycling facility in New
Cumberland, West Virginia killing 3 people
Some Other Cases