TATP manufacturing, handling, care,

research and related compounds 1.0

Preamble
Before going straight to what may lead someone here, I have to share
what could be called my manifesto. The purpose of this work is to
give “to whom it may concern” material with which they may exercise
their right to freedom and pursuit of a fulfilling life, as in the quest
for knowledge, but with a special target in mind- those who believe to
live in a society and in a world that does not care about freedom.
Those who believe in that us as human should be free to do anything
that does not mean direct harm to no one. Those who believe that
doing what one believes in comes first, even before one owns life.
“Live free or die, these are not empty words”.
I do not consider myself remarkable intellectually, nor in any other
field. Said in others word, I’m a normal person, as you and everyone
else. I do not intend to preach truth, just to do what I can at the best
of my ability to help a cause I believe in. Anything and everything
wrote here is just based on my own research, background and
testing, and just that. Even if my data were to be correct, my
conclusions could very well be not. So, I advise to whoever reads this
to do so with skepticism and scrutiny. May you make your own
freedom with your own hands and your own mind.

ATTENTION: CAUTION IS OF
UTMOST IMPORTANCE.
PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK
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 Table of contents:

-Introduction (Pg.^1)
-Table of contents (Pg.^2)
-Caution and guidelines (Pg.^3)
-General information (Pg.^4)
-Manufacturing and synthesis (Pg.^5-11)
-Preamble
-Formulation Nº1 (Pg.^6)
-Consumable materials and set up
-Preparation (Pg.^7)
-Storage and handling (Pg.^12)
-Research and testing (Pg.^13)
-F-1
-F1-70
-F1-30 (Pg.^14)
-Sources (Pg.^15)
-Complementary material and sources

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 Caution and guidelines
While this work will feature as much sources and citations as possible from the literature
and other trust worthy sources per the guidelines, this work does not intend to pretend to
be a formal asset with the quality standards a well developed one would. As such, I
advice anyone who undertakes any of the practices here commonly labeled as dangerous
to refrain from being careless even if they are here labeled as safe. Something may be
safe to do 100 times, that it only needs to go south once to ruin your day. As such,
“precautionary caution” is advised.
As to keep a more palatable logical order in this work, the first topic will be general
information and manufacturing, as to not talk about safety when handling or storing
something the reader may not know nothing about. While many if not all safety
precautions could be deduced from that information alone by a competent enough mind,
It is still better practice to fully study this document as any complementary work, do one
owns research when feasible and seek help from knowledgeable people on this matter.

As far as detection and possible investigation, TATP is still on a privileged spot, as it

keeps being hard to detect, and always needs for specialized resources that target the
compound in question. Bellow, at the “Complementary material and sources” (Pg.^15), I
have left some material, mostly government promoted, and as such blocked from access
from tor, and probably VPNs, that talks about detection with dogs, olfactory residue
even without direct contact with the substance by mere permeation and special purpose
detectors for the compound and related compounds that can be tied to the production of
TATP.
With this information, it seems safe to say that it seems difficult to get a knock on the
door (or it getting kick down, rather) for producing TATP, however one must be alert all
times, and be as careful as if one already knew they are aware. As such, every step,
rather than being done with “Do not raise suspicion” in mind, should be done as if they
already knew you make and have it, so, with the intention and objective of every step
leaving no evidence for them to support their claims, as well as contingency plans in
case one day you get your door kicked down. Your strongest card here is to be able to
destroy all evidence as quickly as possible, relying in that those things you can’t do such
as cleaning some persistent byproducts won’t be detected because of the specialization
in tools and training needed.

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 General information
TATP (TriAcetone TriPeroxide) is an acetone peroxide
composed of the formula C9H12O4 that has different forms
composed of peroxide (R-O-O-R) and acetone forming cyclic
chains. The compound usually looks like a crystalline
powder, although larger crystals can be regrown. It is know
for it’s instability and tendency to detonate unannounced, injuring of gravity or straight
up killing those who handle it without proper measures, such as terrorists. It can
detonate easily by being exposed to shock (sudden pressure spikes of any kind), heat,
friction, static electricity, sulfuric acid or UV radiation.[1] [2] [3] [4]
It is considered a HE (5km/s to 2.5km/s) and is theorized to detonate by first
decomposing, creating an enormous volume of gases (acetone and ozone) and then
undergoing combustion. This process is mediated entropically (tendency of any system
to be in a state that is statistically more probable, most of the time this being more
disordered) rather than energetically.[1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
TATP and its other forms are know for mass loss by sublimation (solid to gas
conversion), which then can condense and regrow as bigger crystals, than may undergo
spontaneous detonation due to inner crystalline structure stress or by depositing on
threads and other storage mechanisms that may shock the compound when operated.[1] [4]
However, it’s extreme instability and sensitivity has been put into question. While it is a
primary explosive, very easy to set off by a vast array of mechanism such as UV light or
electrostatic shock, all the reports that seem to state it’s tendency to detonate without
cause come from cases where the catalyst was SO4H2 (sulfuric acid), which is know to
create the most unstable yield of TATP, while that synthesized with HCl Has been
referred by the literature as “very stable”.[1] [3] [7] On top of that, the circumstances being
less than optimal, with terrorist handling the substance, from where one can deduce
safety protocols where not exactly their main concern. Based on the available literature
and my own testing, I think is safe to say that while being a dangerous material, it’s
unreliability comes from those handling it, not the compound itself.

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 Manufacturing and synthesis
Preamble
Manufacture and synthesis practices are going to vary depending on the the intended
purposes of the process. If you were to dedicate yourself to developing and testing new
synthesis procedures, just knowing that the reactants are acetone, H2O2 and some acid as
a catalyst, and that the mixture could spontaneously detonate if the numbers are off
enough, would be sufficient.
Following the scope of this work, we are going to set the standards and procedures for
an easy to make, low profile, effective and safe to handle when following the standards
compound to be used as small arms ammunition propellant, HE devices such as hand
grenades and shaped charges, and rocket propulsion fuel. Of the uses mentioned,
however, the one in which we will maintain focus, at least in this edition, will be the first
one. While most procedures can be scale up and down, there are some that for safety
reasons cannot be simply applied as they are for large scale operation, and as such, they
have a special purpose methodology for scaling up operational capabilities without
risking disaster. Synthesis and manufacturing are such cases. It will be expanded later,
but on a general note for this and all cases where scaling may suppose risks, the standard
procedure is to keep individual processes the same, and just reiterate them with multiple,
small iterations that can be run on parallel.

5
Formulation Nº1
Consumable materials and set up
-Reactants and catalyst:
• -100% Acetone: Sold as nail polisher or for dissolving paint, obtain one with no
additives
• -Hydrogen peroxide [H2O2]: Used as disinfectant and hair bleach, it is available in
multiple purities, mainly from 3% (10 Vol) to 12% (40 Vol). None of these are
suitable for the reaction, they’ll have to be purified to 30% by boiling the water or
distillation.
• Hydrochloric acid [Hcl]: Sold at hardware stores and used for a plethora of jobs,
24% is enough.
• Paper filter, such as coffee filters.
• Ice, around 3 litters or more.
• Distilled water, around a glass or more
-Set up:
• Heat source, such as a stove.
• Pot, around 10-15cm of diameter.
• [Optional] Recipient, 304 stainless (or similar) or aluminum. Has to be put inside
the pot to concentrate the H2O2 through bain-marie for better temperature control.
• A sink, or a bigger pot with water and ice to cool the H2O2 once concentrated.
• 2 Glass or plastic containers, such as a straight walled glass or a beaker.
• Another 2 recipients, of bigger diameter than the glass containers, for the ice bath.
• Recipient where to place the filter and dump any waste liquid. BE AWARE
METAL CONTAINERS CAN REACT EXOTHERMICALLY WITH ACIDS.
• 3 Different graded containers for measuring the components by volume, or any
other measuring method. Don’t forget to adapt the ratios. DON’T USE THE
SAME CONTAMINATED SURFACES FOR DIFFERENT REACTANTS
-Optional:
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 • [Advised] Protective screen to put around the glassware as the reaction takes
place and while you work around it such as when changing the ice bath. A metal
sheet works.
• [Advised] First aid kit.
• [Advised] Cleaning material such as paper towels; sodium hydroxide in case of a
Hcl spill for neutralizing it, water.
• [Advised] General PPE; lab gloves, face shield or safety glasses, face mask, lab
coat…
• Aluminum foil, to wrap everything that has to be kept cold.
• A stirrer or anything that can take its place to aid evaporation. A dc motor with a
plastic stick attached at an angle over the container with the H2O2 works. ^stirrer
• Fire extinguisher or fire blanket.

Preparation
From the start to the filtration of the already synthesized TATP and cleanup, around 7h
are needed, plus whatever it takes to let it dry under ambient temperature to mildly warm
temperature. It can be started soon in the morning, being ready to use probably by the
late evening, or it can be started at the by the afternoon, early evening and be left to dry
overnight. Note that while the reactants can be also left to synthesize the TATP
overnight, for more than the specified 6 hours, this can lead to the formation of more
unstable DADP and other chlorinated compounds that could compromise safety by
making the products more sensitive or toxic as the system shifts from being R-O-O-R
rich to depleting the concentrations of peroxide in the solution.

Ratio:
• By volume/mass/molar:
◦ 7/17 / / of 50%* H2O2
◦ 7/17 / / of 100% acetone
◦ 3/17 to 4/18 / / of 24% HCl
*Using 5.4% H2O2 that was boiled to 1/10 of it’s volume.

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Steps:
1. Plan everything up. As mentioned on this document, TATP can explode, leave
residues that can be incriminatory, and is a lengthy process that could catch eyes.
First, determine how much are you going to need and for what, then, using the
ratio, determine the quantities of each product that you are going to need. Keep in
mind that some materials here such as ice were accounted for small quantities for
a test batch, so scale up everything else (containers, ice, filters…) accordingly.
In case of wanting high scale production, separate the total yield between smaller
quantities, following the same process simultaneously in different containers.
2. Collect every material and distribute them between stations that represent
different phases of the process;
1. H2O2 evaporation: Somewhere where you have a heat source and a sink, have
the peroxide, the graded container or measuring method, the pot, the stirrer and
the recipient if you opted for using a bain-marie method. If you do not have a
sink accessible to cool down the peroxide once concentrated, have an ice bath.
2. Combination and mixing: Have your acetone and HCl along their measuring
containers, one of the straight walled containers and it’s ice bath, along some
aluminum foil with which wrap everything. Before arriving to this station the
acetone should be already chilled in the glass, inside the ice bath.
3. Filtration: Have your second straight walled container with its ice bath, the
distilled water to wash out the solution, the container where to dump the liquid
once synthesis is done and the filter in which to collect your TATP. Have near
your cleaning material as this can get messy. Before arriving to this station the
distilled water should be already chilled in the glass, inside the ice bath.
4. Drying: Find some place where to put your filter with the TATP that isn’t too
hot, has any ignition sources, nor the TATP can get direct sunlight.
3. At station 1, Get your pot and recipient, put water in the pot, and the recipient
inside the water. The recipient will probably float, so maintain it submerged with
tape.
4. Measure 10 times the amount you are going to use in the synthesis if you got
5.4% grade peroxide. If you got anything else, determine how much you will need

8
 to get a yield of a little bit more than 50%. To know this, divide the initial purity
by the final (5.4/50=10) and multiply the product by the synthesis quantity.
5. Once you have the total amount you will need to concentrate, take out of that the
amount you would use for the synthesis if it was concentrated, and pour it into the
recipient or pot if you only have that. Mark or photograph where it reaches, as this
will be the level all the low purity peroxide will reach once the evaporation has
ended.
6. Pour the rest, turn on the stove and keep your water temperature near boiling. If
using only a pot, find where the peroxide starts to boil and bring down the
temperature until it stops boiling. Wait until the level drops to the level you
measured before. If you have a stirrer or something similar, turn it on once you
have reached the desired temperature.
7. Once the level has dropped to the mark, put the container out and cool it with
running water or an ice bath. Be careful to not let water get into the container,
ruining all the work. Be careful when marking the container, measuring the level,
and handling the concentrated peroxide, as it is very oxidizing and will eat away a
lot of materials, contaminating the sample in exchange. It will eat you too. For
more info see the material compatibility datasheet.
8. Once concentrated peroxide has been obtained, move to station 2 with it.
9. Now, with the chilled acetone already inside the container inside the ice bath, pour
carefully to not spill the peroxide, and after that, the HCl. Once everything Is
inside the container, and if the ice inside the ice bath does not need to be changed,
proceed to vigorously mix the solution for some minutes. If you used a stirrer or
something similar for the evaporation, you can use it here too.
10. Once mixed, wrap everything in aluminum foil in such a way that is easy to take
it out and put it back when changing the ice bath. ALUMINUM REACTS
EXOTHERMICALLY WITH HCL, KEEP THE ALUMINUM FROM
TOUCHING THE SOLUTION.
11.Leave it rest on a safe place for around 6 hours. Change ice bath regularly, as to
keep it under 10ºC.[3] [4] [6] ^DADP

9
12. After the chosen time has passed, go to station 3 with the container still in the ice
bath. You should have put the distilled water on an ice bath some time before
arriving to this station.
13. Once there, leave the recipient somewhere safe, and if you can, cover it up some
protective cover while you prepare to filter it. Take your filter, place it on top of
the container where you are going to pour the solution, and secure it so it doesn’t
fall while pouring.
14. Stir gently the solution, and pour the solution over the filter slowly. Once empty,
rinse the recipient with cold distilled water and pour what was left on the
recipient. Repeat until recipient is clean. Then, pour some more distilled water
over the TATP on the filter as to rinse it from the solution and the acid. Let it drip
a little bit and make sure the liquid poured is not touching the bottom of the filter.
15. Lift the filter, press it slightly to get rid of any excess water, and go to station 4.
There, leave the filter with the powder somewhere safe, and wait until it is dry.
16.Congratulations, you have finished making TATP. On a general note, if you are
not going to use it all right away and are going to store it, avoid putting it inside
something rigid that could become fragmentation. Leave it inside a plastic zip
bag, wrap it loosely in bubble wrap, and put all that inside another plastic bag.
Then, store somewhere cool that once again would not become shrapnel.

10
Here we have an example of a simple stirrer.

Here we can see a sample of TATP following the

aforementioned method

11
 Storage and handling
As for the moment, research and development of alternative and special purpose storage
systems for TATP are lacking. For small quantities, such that do not need to be
fractionated and stored apart, a simple, non restraining as to not incite detonation in
exchange of deflagration, thermally insulating method such as putting the TATP into a
plastic zip bag wrapped in bubble wrap has worked for me. I have not seen sublimation
nor condensation and crystal regrowth- I still have to see any crystals at all, as my
formulation delivered a very fine powder that clumps together, reminiscent of flour or
such compounds. Formulation 1-70, lets call it F1-70, seems even more reliable on what
storage is concerned, as it doesn’t seem to show any notable sublimation when exposed
to high heat (60-80ºC?), in contrast to the non mixed substance that completely
disappeared. It also seems to be more insensitive to detonation, as well as no longer
combust instantaneously, but deflagrate in presence of oxygen when unrestrained.
In any case, theorized solutions are of the form of individual but stackable cells
(horizontally, and maybe vertically, if a proper venting system was developed) that
would be isolated from one another, where small amounts of TATP would be stored per
cell. This cells then, that would have 5 faces, leaving the top open, would be “sealed” as
in made airtight by placing on top a plastic cap that would keep it from being subjected
to the ambient (temperature and moisture changes), but in case of detonation or
deflagration would allow the cell to vent as the cap would not be locked, nor even by
friction, only kept in place by gravity. The adjacent cells would be unaffected, as the
walls material and thickness would be able to contain even a confined blast. The cells
manufacture could be easily done by 3d printing molds shaped for the pieces to be
joined like a jigsaw, and the molds could be filled with something like concrete, with
inner linings of steel as to take advantage of the compressive strength of the concrete.
Yes, the methodology is based on the premise that sooner or later something is going to
go ka-boom, but that is a price well worth it as to not loose big batches of the compound,
that costs money, work and time, keep everyone safe and avoiding as much as possible
detection. You can explain a very loud sound, not smoke, blood and a half-once-a-house.

12
 Research and testing
Research has gone primarily to the testing of the TATP made by the Formulation 1,
which we will call F-1, and the testing of it’s derived compounds and mixtures, such as
F1-70 and F1-30.

F-1:
F-1, the (suspected) TATP made my mixing 50% H2O2, acetone and HCl which could
actually be anything else since I do not really have the ability to test what it is, so it
could miraculously be composed of mostly or a little bit of tetra-acetone tetraperoxide,
which is theorized to be more stable, or actually just be regular, properly made TATP. In
any case, there are some remarkable characteristic. One of the is the grain size, which
seems to be so small that I find it impossible to say it really is a crystal, which cumpls
together, and seems to be relatively stable. So far, I have tested it putting the compound
under an open flame while being enclosed airtight into different materials, one being
aluminum foil, which detonated after +30s of being exposed to an open flame at 1cm.
The other, same setup, but with a steel tube, didn’t go off even after 15m of direct
exposure and being so hot that it burned to the touch. The device (pipebomb?) was
disassembled after being cooled with water and the TATP inside was then ignited
manually, so it survived the test. It has been also struck with a hammer, ground, and the
only time in either case it went off was when sandwiched between 2 steels plates and
struck harshly with a hammer. While being ground with all my strength applying
downward pressure, I think I heard some popping noise, very faint, which could have
been small amounts of TATP being detonated, which in case of being true wasn’t strong
enough to be visible nor set off the adjacent TATP being ground on the same surface.

F1-70:
This mixture composed of liquid vaseline (saturated carbon chains ranging from around
C8-C18) and TATP on a ratio by volume ranging from 1:3 to 1:2, or left simpler, 30:70.
Before going with it’s properties, the rationale behind this is for the carbon chains to
soak up the overpressure, lower the oxygen density of the material, and provide a
hydrophobic coating. All this characteristics give the compound huge advantages and
make it more suitable for it’s intended use. First, by avoiding the overpressure to enable
the TATP particles to “communicate” directly which each other, the combustion speeds
gets slower, making the pressure spike flatter, and the same thing does the lowering of

13
oxygen per carbon-hydrogen atoms, practice found on modern smokeless powder.[8] At
the same time, this addition increases stability and reliability, making it less prone to
sublimation, serving as an stabilizer-plasticizer, practice found in cordite, and avoiding
moisture and corrosives from ruining the propellant, as well as avoiding corrosion that
the propellant could cause on other surfaces.[9] [10] It also aides in the handling and
loading, making it a little bit more insensitive, less prone to detonation against
deflagration, and forming clumps or grains that hold together enough to ease moving the
compound when compared to the powder, but not enough for it to stick to surfaces and
leave residue behind.

F1-30:
This mixture is comprised of a 70:30 ratio, with physical properties such as being a
slimy, liquid substance, burning with a very bright orange flame, being viscous and
leaving residues behind. This composition right here will be used first as a propellant
just in case F1-70 ends up being too strong when contained, as this ratio has shown
notable differences in detonation when confined. In case of this one offering good
results, that is, actually propulsing the projectile out of the barrel, the ratio of TATP will
be increased little by little until a satisfactory ratio is reached. I doubt there will be a
need to increase the ratio of vaseline, and in case of this mixture not working at all, F1-
70 might be tested directly without going in-between. Even if not useful for this purpose,
I would find it a very valuable component or additive for incendiary weapons, such as
Molotov cocktails, because the strength and duration of the flame for the very very small
amount of TATP used was very very surprising. It’s consistency also makes it terrifying,
since it would stick to the skin and burn, while being able to permeate the clothes and
burn even when there is a lack of oxygen, making it actually a lot harder to be put off.
Not to say that, if done right, with the very own TATP it could me made to be self
dispersing by detonating the core and spreading the flames all around. Honestly, this
seems like it would be a very brutal weapon, but in case of necessity, and for scientific
reasons, it could be developed and tested.

14
 Sources
[1]
.Acetone peroxide. Wikipedia.
[2]
.Berezow, Alex. “TATP: The Chemistry of 'Mother of Satan' Explosive.” ACSH
(2018).
[3]
.Perks, Bea; Milgrow, Lionel. “UK Government clamp down on online bomb-making
instructions.” RSC (2005).
[4]
.Acetone peroxide. Sciencemadness.
[5]
.Dubnikova, Faina; others. “Decomposition of triacetone triperoxide is an entropic
explosion.“ NIH (2005). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
[6]
.Stevens, Brett. “How To Make Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP).” Amerika (2016).
[7]
.Pachman, Jiri; Matyáš, Robert. “Study of TATP: stability of TATP solutions.” NIH
(2011). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
[8]
.Smokeless Powder, Wikipedia.
[9]
.Cordite, Wikipedia.
[10]
.Petroleum jelly, Wikipedia.

Complementary sources material and sources

https://www.dni.gov/files/NCTC/documents/jcat/firstresponderstoolbox/78--NCTC-
DHS-FBI---Triacetone-Triperoxide-(TATP)-.pdf
https://www.dni.gov/nctc/methods.html
https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/fast-detection-triacetone-triperoxide-
tatp-headspace-using-planar
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21595692/

15