Effect of Zinc Oxide on the Thermal Decomposition of Dimethyl Sulfoxide

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is widely used in the chemical industry. However, it has a non-neglectful thermal runaway risk due to the nature of self-accelerating decomposition near the boiling point. Under the background that zinc oxide (ZnO) may extend the isothermal induction period of thermal decomposition of DMSO, this article conducts an in-depth study for the phenomenon with the techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), accelerating rate calorimetry (ARC), gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and X-ray diffractometry (XRD). After being mixed with ZnO, the maximum decomposition rate of DMSO was significantly reduced and the adiabatic induction period of DMSO decomposition was extended by 3.27 times, indicating that the thermal decomposition intensity of DMSO was obviously reduced. It was experimentally demonstrated that ZnO did not change the decomposition pathways of DMSO, but it could promote the decomposition of methanethiol, which was a decomposition intermediate of DMSO and could potentially serve as a promoter on the decomposition of DMSO.