Ethylene oxide is a toxic carcinogen, which was previously used to make fungicides. Ethylene oxide is flammable and explosive, and it is not easy to transport for a long distance, so it has a strong regional character. Widely used in washing, pharmaceutical, printing and dyeing industries. It can be used as the initiator of cleaning agent in chemical related industries.
ethylene oxide has bactericidal effect, does not corrode metals, has no residual odor, and can kill bacteria (and its endospores), molds and fungi, so it can be used as a gas bactericide for disinfecting some articles and materials that cannot tolerate high-temperature disinfection. Lloyd Hall, an American chemist, obtained a patent for preserving spices by ethylene oxide disinfection in 1938, and this method is still used today. Ethylene oxide is also widely used to disinfect medical supplies such as bandages, sutures and surgical instruments.
It is mainly used for manufacturing other solvents (such as fibrinolytic agents), diluents, nonionic surfactants, synthetic detergents, antifreeze, disinfectants, flexibilizers and plasticizers. Hydroxyethylation with cellulose can synthesize water-soluble resin (its ethylene oxide content is about 75%). It can also be used as fumigant, coating thickener, emulsifier, adhesive and paper sizing agent.
The mixture of ethylene oxide-carbon dioxide (the ratio of the two is 9: 1) or ethylene oxide-dichlorodifluoromethane is usually used for disinfection of hospitals and precision instruments. Fumigating agent for ethylene oxide is often used for the preservation of grain and food. For example, dried egg powder is often decomposed by bacteria during storage. Fumigating with ethylene oxide can prevent deterioration, but the chemical composition of egg powder, including amino acids, is not affected.
ethylene oxide is easy to react with acids, so it can be added to some substances as an antacid, thus reducing the acidity of these substances or not producing acidity for a long time. For example, in the production of chlorinated butyl rubber, if ethylene oxide is added to the solution of isobutylene and isoprene polymer before chlorination, the finished product can be completely washed without alkali and water.
Because ethylene oxide is flammable and has a wide explosion concentration range in the air, it is sometimes used as the fuel component of fuel gasification explosives.
When ethylene oxide decomposes automatically, it can generate huge energy, which can be used as the power of rockets and jet propellers. Generally, the mixture of nitromethane and ethylene oxide (6: 4-95: 5) is used. This mixed fuel has good combustion performance, low freezing point, relatively stable properties and is not easy to detonate. Generally speaking, the direct use consumption of ethylene oxide is very small, and ethylene oxide, as an industrial derivative of ethylene, is the second most important product after polyethylene. Its importance is mainly a series of products produced from it. There are far more kinds of downstream products derived from ethylene oxide than various ethylene derivatives. The toxicity of ethylene oxide is 27 times that of ethylene glycol and similar to that of ammonia. Formaldehyde, ethylene glycol and oxalic acid are formed in the body, which has anesthetic effect on the central nervous system, stimulating effect on mucosa and toxic effect on cell protoplasm.
most of ethylene oxide is used to make other chemicals, mainly ethylene glycol. The main end use of ethylene glycol is to produce polyester polymer, and it is also used as automobile coolant and antifreeze. Secondly, it is used to produce downstream products such as ethoxy compound, ethanolamine, glycol ether, ethyleneamine, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, polyglycol, hydroxyethyl cellulose, choline chloride, glyoxal, ethylene carbonate, etc.
ethylene oxide is mainly used to produce ethylene glycol (raw material for polyester fiber), synthetic detergent, nonionic surfactant, antifreeze, emulsifier and ethylene glycol products, and also used to produce plasticizers, lubricants, rubber and plastics. Widely used in dyeing, electronics, medicine, pesticides, textiles, paper making, automobiles, oil exploitation and refining and many other fields.