Analysis of a Suspect Explosive Component: Hydrogen Peroxide in Hair Coloring Developer

Beginning of article

Introduction

The objective of this article is to demonstrate the approach used for the analysis of a suspect explosive component submitted as case evidence. Samples of evidence taken from the home of a suspect who was under suspicion for producing bombs were submitted to the FBI Laboratory. The evidence included two five-ounce cans labeled citric acid, five tubes labeled hexamine, an empty one-pint bottle labeled Welloxide[R] liquid stabilizer developer, and a small vial containing a portion of the liquid originally in the Welloxide[R] bottle. Welloxide[R] is a hair coloring developer that contains hydrogen peroxide ([H.sub.2][O.sub.2]) to oxidize hair in the coloring process. The extremely unstable explosive material, hexamethylenetriperoxidediamine (HMTD), can be produced by combining 45 g of 30% hydrogen peroxide, 14 g of hexamine, and 21 g of powdered citric acid (Urbanski 1985). To demonstrate, in this case, that all the required components to prepare HMTD were present, it was necessary to verify the contents of the containers as labeled. This article specifically concerns the analysis of the Welloxide[R] liquid developer to determine if there was sufficient [H.sub.2][O.sub.2] to produce HMTD. Analysis schemes to identify HMTD explosive have been reported (Reutter et al.1983; Zitrin et al. 1983), but in this case it was necessary to identify each precursor. Because peroxides are highly corrosive, care was taken to use a method that would not damage instruments during the chemical analysis. Infrared (IR) and Raman spectrometry techniques were chosen for the analysis because both offer safe sampling methods.

Forensic IR analysis is a well-established …