Safety measures for using organic solvent

Main hazards of organic solvents

1. Most of them are flammable substances, which are prone to fire in case of ignition source;

2. Most of them have low flash point and very low ignition energy, and are easy to be ignited under normal temperature or low operating temperature.

3. Most of them have a wide range of explosion limits, which are easy to cause fire and explosion when mixed with air;

4. Most of them have lower boiling point, so they are highly volatile and easy to emit combustible gas, forming the basic conditions of combustion and explosion;

5. Most of them have low dielectric constant or high resistivity. These solvents tend to generate electrostatic accumulation in the flow. When the electrostatic charge accumulates to a certain extent, it will generate discharge, ignition, fire and explosion.

6. Most of them are highly toxic to human body. When leakage, loss or fire explosion spread, they will lead to serious poisoning accidents.

7. A few solvents, such as ether, isopropanol, tetrahydrofuran, dioxane, etc., will generate peroxides when exposed to the air during storage, and will explode when heated.

In the chemical industry, most of the chemical reactions are carried out in solvents. Solvent is an important medium, which can make all kinds of substances and molecules participating in the reaction evenly distributed, increase the chance of collision and contact between molecules, and accelerate the reaction process. Solvent can conduct heat, through which it can provide heat to reactants and promote the reaction; through it, the heat released from the reaction can also be transferred out to ensure the safety of the reaction. The choice of solvent can also directly affect the reaction speed, reaction direction, reaction completeness and the configuration of reaction products. Therefore, the correct selection and use of solvents to meet the requirements of the production process is of great significance to achieve the economic and safety goals of organic synthesis.