PENTAERYTHRITOL Tetranitrate, or PETN, is a highly explosive, colourless organic compound, related to nitroglycerine.
The deadly substance was used by Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, who failed in an attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight in 2001.
Officials said analysis of the remnants of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's device was being carried out by the FBI. It was possible that had the chemical mixture detonated, it might have brought down the aircraft.
Introduced as an explosive by the Germans before World War I, PETN is ''valued for its shattering force and efficiency''. It is the ''least stable of the common military explosives but retains its properties in storage for longer periods than nitroglycerine or cellulose nitrate [nitrocellulose] does'', the Encyclopedia Britannica says.
The white crystalline substance feels powdery to the touch. It is more sensitive to shock or friction than TNT or tetryl, and it is never used alone. It is primarily used in booster and bursting charges of small-calibre ammunition and in detonators. |