Evaluation of thermal hazards for dicumyl peroxide by DSC and VSP2

Abstract

Organic peroxides (OPs) have caused many momentous explosions and runaway reactions, resulting from thermal instability, chemical pollutants, and even mechanical shock. In Taiwan, dicumyl peroxide (DCPO), due to its unstable reactive nature, has caused two thermal explosions and runaway reaction incidents in the manufacturing process. To evaluate thermal hazards of DCPO in a batch reactor, we studied thermokinetic parameters, such as heat of decomposition (†Hd), exothermic onset temperature (T0), maximum temperature rise ((dT/dt)max), maximum pressure rise ((dP/dt)max), self-heating rate (dT/dt), etc., via differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and vent sizing package 2 (VSP2).