Richard A. O’Brien

Fusion and Thermal Degradation Behavior of Symmetric Sulfur-Containing Quaternary Ammonium Bromides.

Quaternary ammonium salts are widely used in consumer products and industrial processes, where their instability at elevated temperatures limits their range of applications. In this work, the thermal behavior of a new class of quaternary ammonium salts was investigated using differential scanning calorimetry. These salts contain a sulfur atom in each chain at the fourth position from the central nitrogen and are thus termed thiaquats. The temperatures at which these salts melt and thermally degrade were determined, and enthalpies and entropies of fusion were evaluated. Their melting points increase with chain lengths, in contrast to the behavior of traditional quaternary ammonium salts. Furthermore, they exhibit enthalpies and entropies of fusion significantly lower than corresponding tetraalkyl analogues. These trends provide physical insight into the molecular-level behavior of these salts, suggesting that they do not fully dissociate upon melting. The thiaquats also exhibit thermal stability to markedly higher temperatures than traditional quaternary ammonium bromides, a phenomenon that can be explained in by strong pairing between the quaternary cation and bromide anion, which inhibits possible decomposition mechanisms. This enhanced thermal stability may enable applications of these salts in processes where traditional salts are not viable, such as phase-transfer-catalyzed systems performed at elevated temperatures.