Preface
This book emanates from the production of organic peroxides. The Dutch multinational Akzo Nobel, for which I worked as a chemical engineer between 1968 and 2000, manufactures these compounds.
In 1969, a Dutch company named Noury & Van der Lande became part of Akzo Nobel. That company had discovered around 1920 that dibenzoyl peroxide, a solid particulate material, can remove the yellowish color of flour. The finding was patented worldwide, licenses were given, and the industrial production of dibenzoyl peroxide was started. The production of synthetic plastics has increased since the 1940s, resulting in the increasing importance of organic peroxides as initiators of the radical polymerization of vinyl monomers. Noury & Van der Lande also started the production of organic peroxides for this application.
The expression “peroxides” is short for “superoxides.” It indicates that the compound contains relatively much oxygen. All or part of this oxygen is “active oxygen”. The active oxygen causes the desired action at the application of the organic peroxides. For example, the bleaching of flour is caused by the liberation of “active oxygen,” oxidizing carotene to colorless compounds. A further example, at the manufacture of polymers, is the decomposition of organic peroxides at relatively low temperatures to form free radicals. The free radicals act as initiators for polymerization reactions.
Explosions and fires at the manufacture and the handling of these compounds have ...