A Technological overview of Improvised Energetic Materials: Characteristics, Post-blast residues and Detection methodologies.

Abstract

In the prevailing world, among the many tools of terrorists, explosives are the most potent and popular. Technological developments and the easy availability of information exhibit rapid transformation from the dependence on conventional explosive devices to the designing of improvised chemical devices. The security forces and the law enforcement agencies find it difficult to counter the Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) menace without a complete and detailed knowledge about their characteristics and potential. Hence, in this review paper, the author have made sincere efforts to review the work reported by the energetic materials community in the area of improvised energetic materials and the technologies involved in their detection methodologies which are appropriate to defeat the menace. This paper also discusses the common chemicals and precursor chemicals reported in literature and their use in the improvised explosive devices.

Keywords: Improvised energetic materials (IEMs), Ammonium nitrate fuel oil (ANFO), Triacetone triperoxide (TATP), Improvised explosive devices (IEDs), Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN)