Thermal hazard evaluation of tert-butyl peroxide using non-isothermal and adiabatic calorimetric approaches

Abstract

Tert-butyl peroxide (TBPO), is a typical organic peroxides (OPs),which is widely applied as initiator in poly-glycidyl methacrylate (PGMA) reaction, and is employed to provide a free-radical in frontal polymerization, and which has also caused many thermal runaway reactions and explosions worldwide. To find an unknown and insufficient hazard information for an energetic material, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and vent sizing package 2 (VSP2) were employed to detect the fundamental thermokinetic parameters involving the exothermic onset temperature (T 0), heat of decomposition (ΔH d), temperature rise rate (dT · dt −1), time to maximum rate under adiabatic situation (TMRad), pressure rise rate (dP · dt −1), and maximum pressure (P max), etc. The T 0 was calculated to be 130 °C using DSC and VSP2. Activation energy (E a) of TBPO was evaluated to be 136 kJ mol−1 by VSP2. In view of the loss prevention, calorimetric applications and model evaluation to integrate thermal hazard development are adequate means for inherently safer design.