SEMTEX explosive pentaerythritol

The investigation into the sabotage of Pan Am Flight 103, which left 269 dead, indicated that the explosive used was Semtex H, a plasticized mixture of hexahydro-l,3,5-trinitro-s-triazine and pentaerythritol tetranitrate, and that the amount used was half the quantity that the fledgling technique of Thermal Neutron Analysis (TNA) was designed to detect. Although the placement of the explosive device was fortuitous (from the terrorists point of view) and the suitcase had not been screened by TNA, this event killed the TNA prototype program. 

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) (3) is a powerful explosive which exhibits considerable brisance on detonation (VOD 8310 m/s at = 1.77 g/cm ). It is the most stable and least reactive of the common nitrate ester explosives. The relatively high sensitivity of PETN to friction and impact means that it is usually desensitized with phlegmatizers like wax and the product is used in detonation cord, boosters and as a base charge in detonators. Pentaerythritol tetranitrate can be mixed with synthetic polymers to form plastic bonded explosives (PBXs) like detasheet and Semtex-IA. A cast mixture of PETN and TNT in equal proportions is known as pentolite and has seen wide use as a military explosive and in booster charges. The physical, chemical and explosive properties of PETN commend its use as a high explosive. 

A Renishaw Raman Microspectrometer, model RM-2000 equipped with Leica microscope, lOx magnification objective and CCD detector was used to study the signal enhancement of analytes deposited on stainless steel (ss) plates by the direct application of silver colloids. The spectra were obtained in the range of 600-1800 cm nsing one acquisition and 3 s of integration time (Fig. 1). Spontaneous Raman spectra were obtained from pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) high explosive (HE) and from SEMTEX, a PETN based explosive formulation. PETN was synthesized according to the method described by Urbanski (16). 

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate PETN C5H8N4O12 316.14 Detonators, sheet explosives, Semtex, blasting caps... 

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