Multistep Kinetic Behavior of the Thermal Decomposition of Granular Sodium Percarbonate: Hindrance Effect of the Outer Surface Layer

The kinetics and mechanism of the thermal decomposition of granular sodium percarbonate (SPC), which is used as a household oxygen bleach, were studied by thermoanalytical measurements under systematically changing conditions and morphological observation of the reactant solids at different reaction stages. A physico-geometrical kinetic behavior of the reaction that occurs in a core-shell structure composed of an outer surface layer and internal aggregates of SPC crystalline particles was illustrated through detailed kinetic analyses using the kinetic deconvolution method. Simultaneously, the hazardous nature of SPC as a combustion improver was evaluated on the basis of the kinetic behavior of the thermal decomposition. It was found that the outer surface layers of the SPC granules hinder the diffusional removal of product gases generated by the thermal decomposition of the internal SPC crystalline particles. The reaction rate decelerates because of an increase in the internal gaseous pressure as the reaction advances. However, the reaction rate accelerates once crack formation occurs in the outer surface layer at the midpoint of the reaction. Therefore, the overall reaction was empirically demonstrated to consist of two overlapping reaction steps owing to the changes in the self-generated reaction conditions in the interior of the SPC granules.