Forensic analytical aspects of homemade explosives containing grocery powders and hydrogen peroxide

Tomasz Otłowski; Maciej Zalas; Błażej Gierczyk

doi:10.1038/s41598-024-51335-w

Forensic analytical aspects of homemade explosives containing grocery powders and hydrogen peroxide

Sci Rep. 2024 Jan 7;14(1):750. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-51335-w.

Authors

Tomasz Otłowski¹, Maciej Zalas¹, Błażej Gierczyk²

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, 8 Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego Str., 61-614, Poznań, Poland.
² Faculty of Chemistry, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, 8 Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego Str., 61-614, Poznań, Poland. hanuman@amu.edu.pl.

Abstract

Homemade explosives become a significant challenge for forensic scientists and investigators. In addition to well-known materials such as acetone peroxide trimer, black powder, or lead azides, perpetrators often produce more exotic and less recognized Homemade Explosives (HMEs). Mixtures of hydrogen peroxide with liquid fuels are widely acknowledged as powerful explosives. Interestingly, similar explosive properties are found in mixtures of numerous solid materials with H₂O₂. Notably, powdered groceries, such as coffee, tea, grounded spices, and flour, are particularly interesting to pyrotechnics enthusiasts due to their easy production using accessible precursors, which do not attract the attention of security agencies. H₂O₂-based HMEs may become a dangerous component of improvised explosive devices for terrorists and ordinary offenders. For the four most powerful mixtures-HMEs based on coffee, tea, paprika, and turmeric-molecular markers useful for identification using the GC-MS technique have been proposed. Furthermore, the observed time-dependent changes in mixtures of H₂O₂ with these food products were studied and evaluated as a potential method for assessing the age of the evidence and reconstructing timelines of crimes. The paper also discusses the usefulness of FT-IR spectroscopy for identifying H₂O₂-based HMEs.