Incorrect Thermal Testing
Incident
A development chemist suspected that the material he was making could be thermally unstable so he decided to heat a small sample (2ml) in a 50ml RB flask in an oil bath. He monitored the temperature using a thermometer.
On heating to 150°C, he saw no appreciable temperature deviation from the oil bath, so he decided to carry out a distillation of the material on a 100ml scale
On heating to ca.145°C, the flask exploded (no one was injured). Subsequent DSC testing showed that the material had a DSC onset temperature of around 95°C and a heat of decomposition of around 1200J/g
Extra Information
Poor data was given in the MSDS....
- Deflagration from 120°C
- Boiling point ca.175°C
- Thermally unstable from 200°C