Diacyl peroxides

As the world's number one producer of organic peroxides we offer a whole range of diacyl peroxides under the trademarks of Perkadox®, Trigonox® and Laurox® (dilauroyl peroxide).

Structure
Diacyl peroxides have the general structure RC(O)OO(O)CR₁ wherein R and R₁ mostly represent alkyl and/or aryl groups. They can be subdivided into dialkanoyl peroxides, alkanoyl-aroyl peroxides and diaroyl peroxides.

Diacyl peroxides are thermally unstable compounds, decomposing at relatively low temperatures thereby forming free radicals; RC(O)O· and ·O(O)CR₁.

Depending on the type of diacyl peroxide and reaction conditions cleavage of the peroxide bond may be followed by β-scission, chain transfer and other reactions.

Applications
Diacyl peroxides are used as free radical initiators in the polymerization of various monomers. Dibenzoyl peroxide (BPO) and derivates also find their way in the curing of thermoset resins and the crosslinking of elastomers and thermoplastics. BPO is also used as active pharmaceutical ingredient (API).

Half-life
The most important characteristic of an organic peroxide is its half-life. It is the time required to reduce the original amount at a given temperature by 50%. 

For polymerization initiators the half-life is determined by differential scanning calorimetry-thermal activity monitoring (DSC-TAM) of a dilute solution of a diacyl peroxide in monochlorobenzene. Diacyl peroxides are available in a wide range of activities. 1 hour half-life temperatures vary between 39-91 °C. Among our diacyl peroxides Trigonox 187, which is the most reactive commercially available peroxide initiator.

Half-life temperatures of our diacyl peroxides can be found in the AkzoNobel product brochure "Initiators and Reactor Additives for Thermoplastics" which can be downloaded from this page.

Kinetic data of our crosslinking peroxides have been determined using different polymers and are included in our catalog "Crosslinking elastomers and thermoplastics". 

On request we also provide decomposition mechanisms for some of our diacyl peroxides.