Ageing of HME Chemical ageing processes for two home made explosives

Authors:

  • Jonas Johansson
  • Mona Brantlind
  • Bernhard Zachhuber
  • Malin Kölhed
  • Anna Pettersson

Publish date: 2015-04-23

Report number: FOI-R--4033--SE

Pages: 53

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • HME
  • CAN
  • HMTD
  • ageing
  • chemical analysis
  • environmental factors
  • exploitation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to initiate a survey of chemical ageing processes for two selected home made explosives (HME). The underlying question is to which extent environmental factors such as temperature, relative humidity and UV exposure affects ageing processes, and if they do, to which extent these processes are predictable given that the environmental circumstances are known. On the longer term, this knowledge can be used for exploitation purposes, e.g. to determine the age of an HME find from its chemical degradation. The HME related materials that were included in the study were calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) in the form of prills (fertilizer grade), and the primary explosive Hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD). These were aged for three months using pre-selected environmental parameters. At the start and end of the ageing period, the HME samples were weighed and chemically analysed using Raman and IRspectroscopy. This study shows that HMEs are susceptible to environmental ageing. The degree of ageing varies depending on environmental parameters and type of HME.