Thermal stability analysis of dicumyl peroxide

Abstract

To prevent fire and explosion accident caused by dicumyl peroxide (DCPO), the adiabatic stability of DCPO was investigated by an accelerating rate calorimeter (ARC) in this paper. Comparison of test results of ARC with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was carried out. The test results show that the initial exothermic temperature for DCPO was 379.47 K, the maximum exothermic temperature was 439.82K, maximum self-heating rate and the time to maximum self-heating rate were 3.44 K·min-1 and 608.16 min respectively, and the maximum pressure produced by unit mass was 7.74 MPa·g-1. The high thermal hazard and powerful explosion of DCPO were demonstrated by the results of DSC and ARC. Finally, The kinetic parameters such as apparent activation energy and pre-exponential factor of the thermal decomposition of DCPO were calculated pressure kinetic model, and the temperature of no return (TNR) and self accelerating decomposition temperature (TSADT) of DCPO with some specific package were predicted. The studies have revealed that DCPO is sensitive to thermal effect, and the thermal decomposition is hazardous due to its serious pressure effect. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.