Thermal decomposition kinetic evaluation and its thermal hazards prediction of AIBN

Abstract

AIBN (2,2′-azobis (isobutyronitrile)), widely used for blowing agent and initiator, is a typical self-reactive material, being capable of undergoing runaway reaction due to its self-heating during storage or transportation. In this study, the thermal decomposition process of AIBN was studied by differential scanning calorimetry at different heating rates. The kinetic parameters including the activation energy and pre-exponential factor at different stages were calculated, and the laws of parameter variation were analyzed using the software, named as Advanced Kinetics and Technology Solutions, which can also predict the thermal stability of decomposition process at actual situations, such as ton and kg scale. The results show that heating rate can influence evidently the thermal behavior of AIBN, which can decompose in liquid phase or in liquid–solid co-existing phase, or, even decomposes in solid phase; according to Friedman method, the value of the calculated activation energy is 122 kJ mol−1; according to Ozawa method, the value decreases gradually with the reaction process, and the smallest one is 124 kJ mol−1. By mg-scale prediction under isothermal condition, it is known that AIBN decomposes at 30 °C (room temperature), very slowly; by ton-scale prediction under adiabatic condition, the safety diagram of AIBN is acquired, which shows how the time to the maximum rate changes with the initial temperature under ideal adiabatic condition (Φ = 1), for example, for TMRad = 24 h, the corresponding mean temperature (i.e., TD24) is 71.23 °C, and for the initial temperature 71.23 °C, the lower and upper limits of the confidence intervals (95 % probability) are 18.5 and 31 h; by kg-scale prediction, it is obtained that the self-accelerating decomposition temperature of 50 kg AIBN with standard package is 63 °C, which is close to that of ARC.