Peroxymonocarbonates
Trigonox
We offer a number of peroxymonocarbonates under the well-known trademark of Trigonox®.
Structure
Peroxymonocarbonates have the general structure ROC(O)O-OR1 wherein R and R1 represent alkyl and/or aryl groups.
As most organic peroxides, peroxymonocarbonates are thermally unstable compounds. The O-O bond breaks at relatively low temperatures forming free radicals: ROC(O)O· and ·OR1.
Depending on the structure of the percarbonate and reaction conditions cleavage of the peroxide bond may be followed by β-scission, chain transfer, decarboxylation and other reactions.
Applications
Peroxymonocarbonates are mostly used as free radical initiators in the manufacture of low density polyethylene (LDPE), acrylics and styrenics. Some of them also find their way in the curing of thermoset resins. Trigonox 117 is also used as crosslinking peroxide.
Half-life
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%.
For polymerization initiators the half-life is determined by differential scanning calorimetry-thermal activity monitoring (DSC-TAM) of a dilute solution of a peroxymonocarbonate in monochlorobenzene. 1 hour half-life temperatures lie in the range of 113-117 °C.
Half-life temperatures of our peroxymonocarbonates are given in the AkzoNobel product catalog "Initiators and Reactor Additives for Thermoplastics" which can be downloaded from this page.
For crosslinking applications kinetic data can be found in our brochure "Crosslinking elastomers and thermoplastics".
On request we also provide decomposition mechanisms for some of our peroxymonocarbonates.