(323b) Hydrogen Peroxide Stability in Silica Xerogels

Hydrogen peroxide is an environmentally friendly oxidant whose disproportionation products are oxygen and water. The largest use of hydrogen peroxide is in pulp and paper industry, but it also has important applications in sterilization, waste water treatment and household bleaching. More recently, hydrogen peroxide is used to decontaminate nuclear waste. However, hydrogen peroxide has low stability at ambient conditions limiting its use in certain applications.  A stable solid form of hydrogen peroxide has been found to increase its safety during storage and handling.  Stabilization of hydrogen peroxide using silica xerogel is promising due to the strong hydrogen bonding between the two. Silica xerogels are formed via sol-gel chemistry using an aqueous silicate precursor, a simple, low cost and environmentally friendly process. In the present study, the effect of phase equilibrium between hydrogen peroxide/water/sodium on xerogel formation is studied. Xerogels are characterized by measuring surface area, pore size and pore size distribution using BET and their morphology is studied using SEM. Stability of hydrogen peroxide in xerogels is studied through liquid-solid transition at low temperatures using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The results obtained will be presented.