Pentaerythritol is a tetrahydric neopentyl alcohol. It is an odourless white, crystalline, solid compound. It is non hygroscopic, practically non-volatile and stable in air. It is apparently non-toxic and non-violating to the skin. The Pentaerythritol is principally used in the surface coating industries. The medium and long oil length Alkyd resins prepared from Pentaerythritol, dibasic, acids and drying or semidrying oils or fatty acids are widely used in compositions that dry rapidly to form surface coatings with high gloss, excellent water and alkali resistance and good ageing characteristics. Pentaerythritol is an alcohol prepared by treating acetaldehyde with formaldehyde in an aqueous solution of calcium hydroxide; used in synthetic resins and in paints and varnishes.
Pentaerythritol based resin esters are used in a variety of products including paints, varnishes, lacquers, printing inks, floor coverings and adhesives. Pentaerythritol esters of fatty acids are used as plasticizes for PVC resins. Such esters also show promise as lubricants. The poly oxy alkaline ethers of Pentaerythritol have proved useful as surface active agents and as foamed polyurethane resins. Sometimes it is also used in fire retardant surface coatings. Exposed to high temperatures, these coatings froth and swell to produce a solid, non-combustible residue which serves to protect the substrate from fire.
Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) has characteristics similar to those of cyclonite and is mixed with TNT to form the explosive pentolite. It also forms the core of the explosive primacord fuses used for detonating demolition charges and the booster charges used in blasting.
Alkyd resin paint is esters of polybasic acids and polyhydric alcohols which have been modified by oil or fatty acids; pentaerythritol is used as a polyhydric acid. In particular, alkyd paint made with pentaerythritol has superior adhesion, weather-resistant, color, luster, water resistant and chemical resistant properties in comparison with trihydric alcohols, such as glycerin, and also dry faster than trihydric alcohols.
To produce PETN, one has to mix pentaerythritol with a mixture of concentrated nitric and sulfuric acids. It makes it likely that the liquid in the syringe that Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab was trying to inject into his groin area that contained pentaerythritol was the acid mixture. It is alleged Mutallab was trying to carry out the reaction underneath a blanket that he obtained after complaining of stomach pain.