Acetone peroxide Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Acetone peroxide is a high explosive that can be made from common household items: drain cleaner (sulfuric acid), hydrogen peroxide, and acetone. Since its precursors are readily available, it is commonly used by amateur bomb makers, often for detonators, and are sometimes used in terrorist attacks. Other acids such as hydrochloric acid and citric acid are frequent substitute catalysts to create acetone peroxide.
Warning: Acetone peroxide is highly heat and shock sensitive. Even professional chemists have been injured attempting to use it.
Acetone peroxide was discovered in 1895 by R. Wolffenstein (Chemische Berichte 28, 2265 (1895). Information about it is also available in the Journal of the American Chemical Society 81, 6261 (1959). Other sources include crystal structure and 3d analysis in "The Chemistry of Peroxides" edited by Saul Patai (pp. 396-7), as well as the "Textbook of Practical Organic Chemistry" by Vogel.
Chemistry
Also known as "peroxyacetone", acetone peroxide most commonly refers to the cyclic trimer TCAP (tri-cyclic acetone peroxide, or tri-cyclo), obtained by mixing hydrogen peroxide with acetone using a small amount of acid (mentioned above) as a catalyst. The cyclic dimer (C6H12O4) and open monomer and dimer are also formed, but under proper conditions the cyclic trimer is the primary product.
TCAP burns in quantities less than about 2 grams. Above this, it will usually detonate, although confinement or lack thereof has a significant effect on this somewhat arbitrary limit (in other words, there is no safe quantity of TCAP). The oxidation that occurs when burning is: 2 C9H18O6 + 21 O2 --> 18 H2O + 18 CO2
The extreme shock, heat, and friction sensitivity are due to the instability of the molecule and large number of bonds broken per molecule when a TCAP molecule disintegrates. Obviously the following analogy is only partially accurate, but imagine TCAP as a 2-dimensional soap bubble: when the bubble bursts, the released energy destroys neighboring molecules initiating a chain reaction: in greater-than-microscopic quantities, TCAP will detonate.
Many people have been killed or permanently injured when trying to synthesize acetone peroxide: their most common error is that of temperature. If one is making tricycloacetone peroxide, the temperature must be less than 10°C at all times, otherwise the product formed will be dicycloacetone peroxide, which is so unstable and sensitive that it has no uses in the field of explosives: dicycloacetone peroxide has been known to explode spontaneously.