Premium
On the Use of Differential Scanning Calorimetry for Thermal Hazard Assessment of New Chemistry: Avoiding Explosive Mistakes
Author(s) -
Green Sebastian P.,
Wheelhouse Katherine M.,
Payne Andrew D.,
Hallett Jason P.,
Miller Philip W.,
Bull James A.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
angewandte chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1521-3757
pISSN - 0044-8249
DOI - 10.1002/ange.202007028
Subject(s) - differential scanning calorimetry , explosive material , hazardous waste , hazard , hazard analysis , thermal analysis , replicate , computer science , chemistry , risk analysis (engineering) , nanotechnology , materials science , thermal , reliability engineering , engineering , medicine , thermodynamics , physics , organic chemistry , waste management , mathematics , statistics
Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) is increasingly used as evidence to support a favourable safety profile of novel chemistry, or to highlight the need for caution. DSC enables preliminary assessment of the thermal hazards of a potentially energetic compound. However, unlike other standard characterisation methods, which have well defined formats for reporting data, the current reporting of DSC results for thermal hazard assessment has shown concerning trends. Around half of all results in 2019 did not include experimental details required to replicate the procedure. Furthermore, analysis for thermal hazard assessment is often only conducted in unsealed crucibles, which could lead to misleading results and dangerously incorrect conclusions. We highlight the specific issues with DSC analysis of hazardous compounds currently in the organic chemistry literature and provide simple “best practice” guidelines which will give chemists confidence in reported DSC results and the conclusions drawn from them.