Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from

the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe

The Open Chemical Physics Journal

ISSN NO: -->Volume 2 ISSN: 1874-4125 :

Abstract: We have discovered distinctive red/gray chips in all the samples we have studied of the dust produced by thedestruction of the World Trade Center. Examination of four of these samples, collected from separate sites, is reported inthis paper. These red/gray chips show marked similarities in all four samples. One sample was collected by a Manhattanresident about ten minutes after the collapse of the second WTC Tower, two the next day, and a fourth about a week later.The properties of these chips were analyzed using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray energydispersive spectroscopy (XEDS), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The red material contains grains approximately100 nm across which are largely iron oxide, while aluminum is contained in tiny plate-like structures. Separationof components using methyl ethyl ketone demonstrated that elemental aluminum is present. The iron oxide and aluminumare intimately mixed in the red material. When ignited in a DSC device the chips exhibit large but narrow exotherms occurringat approximately 430 °C, far below the normal ignition temperature for conventional thermite. Numerous iron-richspheres are clearly observed in the residue following the ignition of these peculiar red/gray chips. The red portion of thesechips is found to be an unreacted thermitic material and highly energetic. (read more at )