Author Topic: Bristol University student accidentally made explosive  (Read 1004 times)

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Offline EC

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Bristol University student accidentally made explosive
« on: February 16, 2017, 01:40:45 pm »
University buildings were evacuated when a student accidentally made the same highly explosive substance that was used in the Paris terror attacks.

An investigation by Bristol University has found that triacetone triperoxide (TATP) was "unintentionally formed during a routine procedure".

A cordon was set up around the university's chemistry block during the incident earlier this month.

No-one was injured and a controlled explosion was carried out.

TATP was used in bomb vests worn by militants in the Paris attacks and later found by Belgian police following attacks in Brussels.

Bristol University said: "We have robust contingency plans in place to deal with incidents of this nature.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-38991983

University student. High explosive.

Accident my ass.
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Online Elderberry

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Re: Bristol University student accidentally made explosive
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2017, 01:47:14 pm »
TATP is made using common lab chemicals, but I cannot fathom that mixing them together is a "Routine Procedure"

Offline EC

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Re: Bristol University student accidentally made explosive
« Reply #2 on: February 16, 2017, 01:50:01 pm »
TATP is made using common lab chemicals, but I cannot fathom that mixing them together is a "Routine Procedure"

I can't think of a single common synthesis that could be screwed up that badly.

Meh, we used to make nitroglycerin and pyrophoric lead - the favored bang stuff changes, but the urge of students to make it never does.  :tongue2:
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Offline Joe Wooten

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Re: Bristol University student accidentally made explosive
« Reply #3 on: February 16, 2017, 02:18:04 pm »
I can't think of a single common synthesis that could be screwed up that badly.

Meh, we used to make nitroglycerin and pyrophoric lead - the favored bang stuff changes, but the urge of students to make it never does.  :tongue2:

Back in spring 1972 I was a sophomore in high school and was in a chemistry class with 6 other boys(small rural school). The teacher was an older gentleman who had a heart attack in mid-March and the Principal forgot to get a sub to oversee us. Now get this....6 young men unsupervised in a fully equipped lab with the chemical storeroom unlocked.
Of the 6, 2 were seniors, one of those being the class valedictorian, 3 juniors containing both the valedictorian and the salutorian, and me, the future valedictorian of the Class of 1974.

Can you guess what happened very quickly?

Yes, we started with black powder, then nitro. It's a wonder we did not blow ourselves up, but after two weeks, the Principal stuck his head through the classroom door about 2 weeks later when he heard us doing one of the experiments listed in our textbook, saw the open storeroom door and quietly said "Oh my God!", trotted over to the teacher's lounge, and grabbed the only one in there, the football coach on a smoke break and told him to watch over us while he got a sub lined up....

We never told anyone about what we did until several years later when I was talking to the Principal (then retired) and told him what we did back then. He was not surprised by the revelation.....

Online The_Reader_David

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Re: Bristol University student accidentally made explosive
« Reply #4 on: February 16, 2017, 02:58:41 pm »
TATP is made using common lab chemicals, but I cannot fathom that mixing them together is a "Routine Procedure"

Seeing that the original synthesis was done by letting a mixture of acetone and hydrogen peroxide sit for a week, and that I recall using acetone as a general purpose solvent in my brief HS course in organic chem, accidentally getting it mixed with H202, esp in the presence of acidic fumes, could indeed have accidentally produced some TATP. (Strangely the small rural HS I attended had a phenomenal chemistry program. No AP courses, but the regular chem sequence could have been one, as it let me test out of a semester of chem, and they had a short-course on organic.  Another recollection from HS organic chem:  acidic fumes can do odd things to intended syntheses.  We were supposed to make some sort of hard plastic polymer, but my batch got exposed to acidic fumes and came out bouncy.  It hardened about three weeks later.)
« Last Edit: February 16, 2017, 09:08:45 pm by The_Reader_David »
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Offline Fishrrman

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Re: Bristol University student accidentally made explosive
« Reply #5 on: February 17, 2017, 01:34:38 am »
Hmmmm......
What was the name of the student?

Sounds like Britain's version of "Ahmed the clock boy" ...

Online Elderberry

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Re: Bristol University student accidentally made explosive
« Reply #6 on: February 17, 2017, 01:50:57 am »
I can't think of a single common synthesis that could be screwed up that badly.

Meh, we used to make nitroglycerin and pyrophoric lead - the favored bang stuff changes, but the urge of students to make it never does.  :tongue2:
I mostly stuck with flash powders and a whole bunch of nitrogen triiodide. I had the whole school hopping with that stuff.

Offline Suppressed

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Re: Bristol University student accidentally made explosive
« Reply #7 on: February 17, 2017, 01:53:37 am »
(Strangely the small rural HS I attended had a phenomenal chemistry program. No AP courses, but the regular chem sequence could have been one, as it let me test out of a semester of chem, and they had a short-course on organic. 

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Online Elderberry

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Re: Bristol University student accidentally made explosive
« Reply #8 on: February 17, 2017, 02:15:45 am »
My HS  chemistry instructor left at the end of the first semester. They grabbed a biology instructor to teach the second semester. She knew nothing about chemistry. So no more labs. She couldn't answer a homework question. She's ask for a student to show how on the blackboard. I loved college chemistry, especially the labs. In my Quantitative Analysis lab, I was supposed to have a lab partner to share glassware. I had three nursing students for lab partners and this was their last required Chem course. There was a lab test at the beginning of each lab. I never studied for it(it was only 10% of the lab grade which was only 25% of the Chem grade) They all studied for it and passed it while I always flunked it. I took them thru each lab assignment in lockstep, drop by drop. We all pretty much Aced every lab. My favorite though was the Organic Lab. It was a six hour lab and if you really hustled you might finish in 4 1/2 hours.

Offline Joe Wooten

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Re: Bristol University student accidentally made explosive
« Reply #9 on: February 17, 2017, 02:35:51 am »
I mostly stuck with flash powders and a whole bunch of nitrogen triiodide. I had the whole school hopping with that stuff.

Nitrogen triiodide was a fad in our dorm at UT Austin for a couple of semesters.....Several doors got blown off their hinges....

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Re: Bristol University student accidentally made explosive
« Reply #10 on: February 17, 2017, 04:18:41 am »
Nitrogen triiodide was a fad in our dorm at UT Austin for a couple of semesters.....Several doors got blown off their hinges....

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