It uses an explosive core of pentaerythritol tetranitrate which is inside its plastic coating.

The explosive, whose full name is pentaerythritol tetranitrate, is usually mixed with other explosives and materials like latex to give it plasticity.

Three officials said that chemical was PETN, pentaerythritol tetranitrate.

Agents include nitroglycerin (glyceryl trinitrate) or pentaerythritol tetranitrate.

It is made of Pentaerythritol tetranitrate and RDX.

It is less sensitive than pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN).

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN)

Five kilos of Penthrit (pentaerythritol tetranitrate) were found in the car as well as false passports and other incriminating documents including sketch plans of various locations.

Traces of high explosives RDX and pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) were found in close proximity to the explosion.

It is a high-speed fuse which explodes, rather than burns, and is suitable for detonating high explosives, usually pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN, Pentrite).

The bomb contained a lethal mixture of nails, ammonium nitrate, TATP and another explosive, pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN).

The toner cartridges were filled with the odorless military grade plastic explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), a white powder that is one of the most powerful explosives known.

And detonating cord normally contains pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), which Mr. Williams believed had been found on a knife carried by Mr. McVeigh.

The company's technology has been used by the Naval Surface Warfare Command to test the presence of different types of plastic explosives through clothing, including PETN (Pentaerythritol tetranitrate).

Detonating cord (also called detonation cord, detacord, det. cord, detcord, primer cord or sun cord) is a thin, flexible plastic tube filled with PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate).

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) - an explosive favoured by the Yemeni-based militant group, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) - was discovered in both devices.

Since the group formed in Yemen in January 2009, it has been responsible for a number of high-profile terror plots, the majority involving the use of the powerful high explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN).

The report said that tests at a laboratory of the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found traces of pentaerythritol tetranitrate, a secondary high explosive, on the emergency escape hatch rope.

In Washington, federal law-enforcement officials said today that the material found in Mr. Reid's black suede basketball sneakers appeared to contain PETN, or pentaerythritol tetranitrate, a chemical ingredient in plastic explosives.

Early results revealed used of Semtex, a general-purpose plastic explosive containing RDX and pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), however the final report of the Forensic Science Institute, Gujarat is awaited.

"Although the A.T.F. report discards the theory of a high intensity explosion," the report said, the presence of pentaerythritol tetranitrate "is unusual, especially when viewed with the presence of antimony and phosphorous in the same vicinity."

Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN), also known as PENT, PENTA, TEN, corpent, penthrite (or-rarely and primarily in German-as nitropenta), is the nitrate ester of pentaerythritol.

Powerful explosive US officials told Associated Press they believed the packages contained PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate) - the explosive used in the failed bombing of a US-bound airliner last Christmas Day - although full testing was not complete.

Most of the stuff was stable and fairly safe to ship, except for the stuff in the center of the pallet, surrounded by Styrofoam shock absorbers--five hundred pounds of pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or P.e.t.n, the primary component of detonating cord and used as a booster in large demolition charges.

These samples were submitted to the FBI's laboratory in Washington, D.C., which determined that one sample contained traces of cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine (RDX), another nitroglycerin, and the third a combination of RDX and pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN); these findings received much media attention at the time.