Thermal hazards analysis for benzoyl peroxide in the presence of hexanoic acid

Abstract Benzoyl peroxide (BPO) is a common cross-linking agent and initiator that is widely used in the chemical industry. The instability of a substance may be influenced by the presence of impurities; therefore, the thermal hazard of organic peroxides under contamination has always been a topic of interest. In this study, the effects of hexanoic acid (HAA) on the thermal decomposition of BPO were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC; 2.0, 4.0, 6.0, 8.0, and 10.0 °C/min) experiments. By using the Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa kinetic models, the progress of the obtained DSC curve was fitted linearly, and the thermokinetic parameters of BPO in the presence of HAA were further calculated. The two apparent activation energy calculations consistently indicated that HAA increased the thermal hazard of BPO. In addition, the Coats-Redfern model was adopted to compute the decomposition mechanism function of each phase of the material, and Gaussian 16 was used to determine the atomic bonding levels between the molecules to discover the thermal decomposition reaction path of BPO under the effect of HAA. The study results can be used as a reference for the loss prevention and control of BPO in practical engineering applications.