Liquid explosives to terrorists is what?

On August 10, the British Police broke a liquid explosive plot of Al-Qaeda, which targeted 10 commercial flights from Britain to the United States, leading to cargo arrest. dozens of criminals, mostly Pakistani nationals of British nationality. What is so liquid explosives?

Bottles and bottles of liquid are forced to leave at Healthrow, London airport (Photo: CAND)

Ever since the Swedish chemist Nobel invented explosives, it has been increasingly used in military and economic fields (mining of mines, petroleum, roads). , breaking obstacles .). All of these explosives operate on the principle of extremely fast combustion and decomposition to release a large amount of energy. It is this rapid burning and decomposing that creates a high-pressure explosion, capable of breaking many types of matter, and energy that creates heat with a lot of smoke.

Most explosives are in solid form like TNT, dynamite, or plastic form like C4. In order to be able to explode, it must be detonated with a detonator to produce a combustion reaction and decay immediately. However, in 1847, during the fabrication of dynamite, chemists found that nitroglycerin, a component found in dynamite, could also explode but did not require an explosive.

Nitroglycerin is a compound between acid and glycerin that, in Medicine, is known for its ability to relax blood vessels if inhaled, or ingested. Therefore, for a long time, patients with angina pectoris, usually prescribed by doctors, take it as oral, or paste it into the chest wall (nitroderm).

The composition of nitroglycerin includes carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. And because these substances are connected to each other unstable, so if a strong collision occurs, the atoms will be broken to create carbon dioxide, water and oxygen. This break is a chain, taking place within a few percent of a second. Therefore, nitroglycerin is an extremely dangerous explosive.

The danger is that it is liquid, slightly viscous and transparent, so terrorists can put it in opaque bottles (such as beer bottles) without a security scanner detected. Then when I get on the plane and when the plane is in the middle of the sky, terrorists just need to pound these bottles into the aluminum bar of the chair frame, or stainless steel toilet in the bathroom, is . explosive!

According to British police, for about 10 years, Al-Qaeda has focused on researching and manufacturing explosives that can be carried on airplanes without being detected by security inspection devices. Although liquid explosives that Al-Qaeda used in the plot to terrorize commercial flights from Britain to the US are not necessarily nitroglycerin, it has the same chemical composition.

This substance can be mixed with a common glue, peroxide, to produce a chemical reaction, an explosion, or terrorists who use hydrogen, peroxide, acetone and acid mixed together to turn into a mixture. Liquid detonator, called triacetone triperoxide . Like nitroglycerin, triacetone triperoxide will produce a lot of ozone and acetone when detonated. If the victim did not die due to the explosion, he also died of smoke poisoning if he was in a closed room like in the fuselage.

Also, according to the British Police, an energy drink used in sports, can also turn into explosives if mixed with old oxygen water, and detonated with an MP3 player, often known under the iPod name, or detonate with a mobile phone. Therefore, after breaking the terrorist plot on August 10, all passengers traveling from England to the United States and vice versa, were forced to leave all bottles and jars of liquids. Particularly for bottles of milk for children, it is only allowed to be carried on board if the father, mother or relatives of the child drink a part right in front of the control staff.

VC