Peroxydicarbonates

AkzoNobel offers the world's largest range of peroxydicarbonates under the well-known trademarks of Perkadox® and Trigonox®.

Structure 
Peroxydicarbonates have the general structure ROC(O)O-O(O)COR₁ wherein R and R₁ represent alkyl and/or aryl groups.

In general peroxydicarbonates are thermally unstable compounds, decomposing at relatively low temperatures. Upon cleavage of the O-O bond free radicals are formed: ROC(O)O· and ·O(O)COR₁.

Depending on the structure of the percarbonate and reaction conditions cleavage of the peroxide bond may be followed by chain transfer, decarboxylation and other reactions.

Applications
Peroxydicarbonates are mostly used as free radical initiators in the suspension polymerization of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Some also find use in the production of low density polyethylene (LDPE), acrylics and styrenics. Perkadox IPP and Trigonox ADC are used in the manufacture of diethylene glycol bis(allyl carbonate)-based optical polymers. Perkadox 16 can be used in thermoset applications such as pultrusion.

Half-life
Most commercially available peroxydicarbonates have a comparable reactivity. 1 hour half-life temperatures lie in the range of 62-65 °C.

The half-life is the most important characteristic of a polymerization initiator. It is the time required to reduce the original amount of an organic peroxide at a given temperature by 50%. The half-life is determined by differential scanning calorimetry-thermal activity monitoring (DSC-TAM) of a dilute solution of a peroxydicarbonate in monochlorobenzene.

Half-life temperatures of our peroxydicarbonates can be found in the AkzoNobel product catalog which can be downloaded from this page.

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