Decomposition Kinetics of Perfluoro‐(4‐methyl‐2‐pentene) (C6F12) and its Extinguishing Performance Study

Abstract The urgent desire for Halon substitution has initiated the development of potential environment friendly alternatives since the Montreal Protocol and subsequent amendments were introduced. Atmospheric degradable agents such as halogenated alkenes, fluorinated ketones and cyclic compounds have been extensively studied. Among them, perfluoro‐(4‐methyl‐2‐pentene) (C 6 F 12 ) has an analogous structure to C 6 F 12 O (Novec 1230) and has been regarded as one kind of potential substitute. In this paper, the main decomposition kinetics of C 6 F 12 are studied numerically. In addition, the interactions between C 6 F 12 and flames are studied experimentally. The results show that the suppression effectiveness of C 6 F 12 is comparable to C 6 F 12 O, and the temperature rise is not obvious. The low chemical reactivity is believed to be caused by the perfluorinated methyl and isopropyl groups adjacent to olefinic carbon decreasing the reactivity of C 6 F 12 toward OH radicals. Chemical kinetics simulation indicates that H‐induced reactions dominate the initial decomposition of C 6 F 12 , and a lot of isomers will be formed via a series of isomerization reactions and subsequent decomposition reactions at high temperature. These findings suggest the promising applicability of C 6 F 12 and worth further study.