Kirsten Randle

PhD Student

Telephone: +61 2 6268 8810
Fax: +61 2 6268 8017
Email: k.randle@student.adfa.edu.au
Location: PEMS Nth, Room 330

Field of Study - Chemistry/Forensic Science/Counter Terrorism

Supervisor: Dr Lynne Wallace and Dr Anthony Day, PEMS
Co-Supervisor: Dr Paul Kirkbride, AFP
Co-Supervisor: Professor Chris Lennard, UC

Research Topic -Detection of peroxide based explosives

Improvised explosive devices created from peroxide containing materials have increasingly been utilised in recent years by a number of terrorist organizations, particularly in Israel , as well as in the UK and the USA . Peroxide-based explosives can be easily ?home-made? using inexpensive, readily available starting materials which can be obtained in most hardware stores. My aim is to develop a sensitive and reliable field test for the detection of these peroxide based explosives and others as Tri-Acetone Tri-Peroxide (TATP) and HexaMethylene Triperoxide Diamine (HMTD). This research focuses on the development of an enhanced visual detection kit using sensitive metal catalysts in conjunction with the ABTS + radical cation and organic colour changing reagent Syringaldazine (SYAZ) in addition to the family of molecules know as cucurbit[n]uril (n=6-10), which have the potential to enhance visual detection.