User:Ivan Kminek/sandbox

Hi, as regards the "nanothermite paper" of Harrit et al, I would like to add info you have perhaps missed. In autumn 2011, debaters on a skeptical web JREF (including me) arranged a new study, conducted by an American forensic expert James Millette, in which new analyses of these red/gray chips from WTC dust were performed. And in February 2012, the most of the results were published here:

In short: in his samples of WTC dust, James Millette found (among others) the same kind of bilayered red/gray chips as chips (a) to (d) described in the paper of Harrit et al. He analyzed them by several methods including SEM-EDS, TEM, FTIR and others and found that stacking hexagonal platelets ca 1 micron in size, which were declared to be elemental aluminum by Harrit et al, are particles of kaolinite (as was expected in JREF already four years ago).

The main conclusion of James Millette was: "The red/gray chips found in the WTC dust at four sites in New York City are consistent with a carbon steel coated with an epoxy resin that contains primarily iron oxide and kaolin clay pigments. There is no evidence of individual elemental aluminum particles of any size in the red/gray chips, therefore the red layer of the red/gray chips is not thermite or nano-thermite."

These chips are simply layers of WTC red epoxy primer paint, containing iron oxide and kaolinite. More specifically, we in JREF are pretty sure that they are particles of red primer employed on WTC1/WTC2 floor trusses, since its composition, found in NIST report NCSTAR 1-6b, Appendix B, p. 155, corresponds very well to the analyses both of Harrit et al and Millette. But, this is just my remark, since James Millette himself did not mention this very plausible hypothesis in his report. Ivan Kminek (talk) 13:58, 22 May 2013 (UTC)