Butadiynes Butanal

Potentially very explosive, it may be handled and transferred by low temperature distillation. It should be stored at —25°C to prevent decomposition and formation of explosive polymers [1]. The critical pressure for explosion is 0.04 bar, but presence of 15-40% of diluents (acetylene, ammonia, carbon dioxide or nitrogen) will raise the critical pressure to 0.92 bar [2], Further data on attenuation by inert diluents of the explosive decomposition of the diyne are available [3], During investigation of the cause of a violent explosion in a plant for separation of higher acetylenes, the most important finding was to keep the concentration of 1,3-butadiyne below 12% in its mixtures. Methanol is a practical diluent [4], The use of butane (at 70 mol%) or other diluents to prevent explosion of 1,3-butadiyne when heated under pressure has been claimed [5], It polymerises rapidly above 0°C. 

Butadiyne, H-CSC-C C-H, as a polymerizable monomer, has received very little attention from polymer chemists although its discovery dates back to Bayer in 1885. This structurally simple, highly reactive bifunctional molecule would be expected to have been a monomer of considerable interest in the field of polymer chemistry. Possibly, limited butadiyne stability may account for the small amount of polymerization research. The The compound is a liquified gas at room temperature (BP = 10 C), discolors slowly in sealed vessels at 20 C and may explode if heated. Storage and instability problems may be circumvented. Prevention of explosion may e accomplished by addition of an inert diluent such as butane. The monomer may also be stored in t e form of a labile complex with N-methyl-pyrrolidone. Its thermal condensation or polymerization was briefly recorded as an observation by Bayer and described in a little more detail by Miiller in 1925. Prevention of this thermal polymerization has been the subject of several patents with methylene blue, pyridine and vinylpyridine claimed as inhibitors. 

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