K. Banert, Frank M. Richter, M. Hagedorn
Aug 7, 2015
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0
Influential Citations
8
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Journal
Organic Process Research & Development
Abstract
This study is based on the efforts to understand the cause of a laboratory accident at a university in Germany. An explosion occurred during the distillation of propargyl thiocyanate (1), a well-known compound. It is assumed that an unwanted [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement under thermal conditions led to the accumulation of highly reactive isothiocyanatopropa-1,2-diene (2), which actually was the explosive substance. To assess the hazard potential of the established purification procedure, pure 1 was analyzed by DTA and 2 by isothermal reaction calorimetry. The results support our hypothesis of unintended formation of dangerous 2, and safety advice is given to prevent future incidents.