Degradation Kinetics and Solvent Effects of Various Long-Chain Quaternary Ammonium Salts

<div>Surfactants such as quaternary ammonium salts (QAS) have been in increasing demand, for emerging new applications. Recent attempts at process intensification of</div><div>their production, have disclosed the need for a better understanding of QAS thermal stability. This work aims to determine degradation kinetics of various QASs, and the</div><div>associated solvent effects. Degradation kinetics of four methyl carbonate QASs were determined in various</div><div>polar solvents in stainless steel batch autoclaves. ¹H NMR spectrometry was employed for online analysis of the reaction mixtures. The kinetic parameters were then used</div><div>to compare the thermal stability of the four compounds in the polar solvents. Water showed not degradation, and methanol (MeOH) was the solvent that provided the</div><div>second-best stability. Water-MeOH mixtures may provide an overall optimum. More, and longer long-chain substituents increased the degradation rate. Thermogravimetric Analysis was used to obtain the thermal stability in a solid-</div><div>state, i.e. solventless environment. Isoconversional analysis showed that no reliable kinetic parameters could be determined. Nevertheless, the data did allow for a compar-</div><div>ison of the thermal stability of 14 different QASs. Furthermore, the relative instability of the compounds in solid-state demonstrated the challenges of solventless QAS production.</div>