New insight into the pyrophoricity and mechanism of ironic sulfide from synergistic effect of FeS and FeS2

Abstract

The pyrophoricity of ironic sulfide of sulfur corrosion products in oil tanks is a critical safety and environment concern that may trigger fire and explosion accidents. This paper focused on mixtures of FeS with FeS2 and aimed to systematically investigate their influence on the pyrophoricity of ironic sulfide. The results showed that the mixtures’ oxidation spontaneous combustion processes are generally similar, including low-temperature heating, oxidation decomposition, and burning-out stages. The more unstable molecular configuration and uneven surface morphology of FeS made it more prone to spontaneous combustion than FeS2. As the proportion of FeS2 in the sample increased, it absorbed the energy used to activate FeS during the early stages of oxidation and decomposition, causing the sample’s activation energy to increase and its pyrophoricity to weaken. When the proportion of FeS2 reached a certain level, the reaction may produce a large amount of elemental sulfur, which further oxidized and released heat, thus promoting the sample’s pyrophoricity. The study results suggest that the oxidation process of ironic sulfide involved a spontaneous, multistage exothermic reaction and produced intermediate products such as elemental sulfur, leading to a synergistic effect that influenced the reaction process.