Tagging explosives

Refs 1) Fi Bowden A.D. Yoffe, Fast Reactions in Solids , Academic Press, NY (1958) 2) J. Roth, Evaluation of the Needs Benefits of the Explosives Tagging Program , Final Report for US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (March 1978) 3) E. Achter et al,... 

Explosives Tagging Control , 2nd Annual Report, Aerospace Corp (Oct 1978) 4) G.N. 

Furfuryl alcohol is comparable to kerosene or No. 1 fuel oil in flammabiUty, the Tag Closed Cup flash point is 170°F. In the presence of concentrated mineral acids or strong organic acids, furfuryl alcohol reacts with explosive violence. Therefore, precautions should be taken to avoid contact of such materials with the alcohol. Caution is also recommended to avoid over-catalysis in the manufacture of furfuryl alcohol resins. 

Ethyl alcohol is a flammable Hquid requiring a red label by the DOT and Coast Guard shipping classifications its flash point is 14°C (Tag, closed cup). Vapor concentrations between 3.3 and 19.0% by volume in air are explosive. Liquid ethyl alcohol can react vigorously with oxidi2ing materials. Ethyl alcohol has found wide appHcation in industry, and experience shows that it is not a serious industrial poison (273—275). If proper ventilation of the work environment is maintained, there is Httle likelihood that inhalation of the vapor will be ha2ardous. 

The recent rise in the use of expolosives in terrorist activity poses new challenges to industry and law enforcement. This challenge is being met by the use of sophisticated chemical detection devices to screen for bombs and more rigorous explosive inventory safeguards and controls. Plans have also been proposed to tag explosives with isotopes to make them easier to trace if misused. 

NUCLEAR COUNTING OF TAGGED EXPLOSIVES BY LIQUID SCINTILLATION... 

H.H. Frey tag, ed, "Handbuch der Raumexplosionen , (Handbook of Explosions), Verlag Chemie, Weinheim (1965) 664pp... 

United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. See under Tagging of Explosives in Vol 9, T3-L ff... 

In more recent years, as the kinetics of thermal decompn of expls began to be studied, questions arose whether partial vaporization and vapor phase decompn were important at temps well below the boiling point of the expl. Very recently, as criminal bombings became a matter of international concern, bomb detection schemes based on detection and identification of vapors of the expls used in such bombs were proposed. Expl vapor detection will not be addressed in this article (see under Tagging of Explosives in Vol 9). The interested reader is referred to a summary contained in Ref 25... 

Although cost of tagging explosives will be considered in Section VI, it is appropriate to present (Table 7) OTA s estimates of the cost of detector systems... 

Detection tags with high vapor pressure, particularly 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane (DMNB), are commonly added to commercial explosives to facilitate the vapor detection of explosives with relatively low vapor pressure such as plastic explosives. Evans group [7] investigated the mechanism of the DMNB reduction at mercury electrodes in a dimethylformamide (DMF) medium, whereas Wang s team [8] recently... 

G. Viesti, S. Pesente, G. Nebbia, M. Lunardon, D. Sudac, K. Nad, S. Blagus and V. Valkovic, Detection of hidden explosives by using tagged neutron beams status and perspectives, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. Sec. B, 241 (1—4) (2005) 748-752. 

Explosive compounds are rarely found in the pure state they are frequently combined with other explosives, stabilizers, tagging agents, plasticizers, and other modifiers to increase the stability and efficiency of the explosive product in question. Over three dozen commercial products with the desired properties, as represented in Table 3, can be shown to share thress major target VOCs also listed [29,30],... 

DMNB was determined not to be an odorant by the majority of the canine population tested. On three separate field trials, there was not one alert to the DMNB source involving different canine teams and different amounts of DMNB ranging from 100 xg to 5 mg. Although this was not observed to be an odorant, it is recommended that DMNB be included in a training aid selection because of its sole application in the tagging of low-vapor-pressure explosives. 

Clearly, with the explosion of new proteins from proteomics, affinity tag technology will become increasingly important. 

TAG-DN and HAT-DN are therefore potentially good candidates for use as explosives. But compounds with good oxygen balances are also suitable as components in rocket propellants. An increase in the specific impulse 7Sp of only 20 s should be enough to allow almost a doubling of the payload. Figure 12.4 shows the calculated specific impulse (isobaric, p = 70 bar) for AP / Al (AP / Al) (70 30), HAT-N03, HAT-DN and TAG-DN. 

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