[EverythingIsMaya]

Hello everyone! I've been employing a slurry coating method (making slurry and film casting in a manner similar to electrode fabrication or ceramic tape casting) to coat powders of silicon and carbon onto silicon substrates prior to additional heat treatment in a furnace.

I'm switching to poly-propylene carbonate (a polymeric binder) and dimethyl carbonate (DMC) as a binder-solvent system. The DMC came in today and I noticed the SDS mentioning it is highly flammable, and air sensitive, with a flash point of ~ 16 °C. Since no one around me uses DMC, I had a couple of questions:

1. Is it safe to use in a fume hood, or do I need a glovebox? Any tips on working with it in general?

2. My procedure is one similar to that in literature, which involves mixing my powders + binder + DMC in a centrifugal mixer or a ball mill for 20 - 30 minutes. I'm fairly certain that both those methods will heat the mixture, but I have never read about the process being done under controlled atmosphere. Given the low flash point, if anyone has experience with this, I would appreciate some pointers.

Thanks

[Enthalpy]

Welcome, EverythingIsMaya!

The flash point is the minimum temperature where enough vapour can build to be flammable. It still needs an ignition source, usually.

Sure a flash point of +60°C is safer, but +16°C is banal and not particularly low. As a comparison, ethanol has a +13°C flash point and is indeed flammable, but most people use it under a fondue without many worries.

Sds need interpretation. They try to be complete and mention every risk that firefighters may encounter in a chemical plant disaster with 3000t released and burning. Many risks scale down when one uses 3g.