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Reactivity Documentation

Metals, Less Reactive

mixed with

Epoxides

Summary

Details

Metals, Less Reactive is a reactive group.
Epoxides is a reactive group.

Reactivity Predictions (for each pair of reactive groups)

Metals, Less Reactive mixed with
Epoxides

Hazard Predictions

Mercury, silver, copper, and their alloys can react with acetylene at room temperature to form explosive metal acetylides, which can ignite ethylene oxide. Since acetylene is a common contaminant in ethylene oxide, these metals should be kept away from ethylene oxide (MCA Safety Datasheet 38, Manufacturing Chemists' Association, Washington, 1971).

Pure ethylene oxide vapor at 101.3 kPa (1 atm) decomposes when passed through a platinum coil heated to 571 C. The decomposition temperature decreases with increasing pressure of ethylene oxide (Rebsdat, S. and Mayer, D. 2001. Ethylene Oxide. Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. (Online)).

At elevated temperatures (190-300 C), silver catalyzes the isomerization of ethylene oxide to acetaldehyde (Rebsdat, S. and Mayer, D. 2001. Ethylene Oxide. Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. (Online)).