Fire and explosion of dinitrosopentamethylenetetramine - a review

Dinitrosopentamethylenetetramine, which was introduced in 1947, is a widely used chemical blowing agent in the rubber industry. One of important characteristics of dinitrosopentamethylenetetramine is that the decomposition proceeds by an exothermic reaction at relatively low temperature especially in contact with acidic materials. Dinitrosopentamethylenetetramine has been reported as being responsible for fire or explosion accidents. For example, a local newspaper in Dhaka in Bangladesh reported that a fire had occurred in a building in downtown and spread to neighboring buildings causing more than one hundred fatalities on 3 June 2010 and that dinitrosopentamethylenetetramine stored in the building had been one of the major causes of the spread of the fire. The thermal decomposition of dinitrosopentamethylenetetramine has been investigated for nearly half a century by a lot of researchers with many methods such as thermal analytical methods or sensitivity testing methods. The results of those investigations on decomposition, ignition, case histories of fire and explosion accidents, and safety measures are reviewed.