Thermal reactivity of ethylene oxide in contact with contaminants: A review

Abstract A review on the experimental studies of the reactivity of ethylene oxide (EO) with various contaminants including water, different kinds of iron oxides and alkalis are presented. It is shown that: (1) Pure EO is not prone to initiate a runaway reaction under 200 °C under adiabatic conditions. (2) The possibility of EO aqueous solution to experience an exothermic reaction depends strongly on the EO concentration, and the onset temperatures could be predicted well by a fourth order reaction rate model. (3) EO exhibits different sensitivities to various kinds of iron oxides. Although γ-Fe 2 O 3 is the most active iron oxide to EO, its runaway reaction consequence is less severe. The reactivity for EO with iron oxides could be: γ-Fe 2 O 3  > α-Fe 3 O 4  > hydrated α-Fe 2 O 3  > α-Fe 2 O 3 . (4) Alkalis could reduce the initial reaction temperature of EO to room temperature with sufficient concentrations, and the proposed hazard potentiality for alkalis is NH 4 OH > KOH > NaOH.