Highly efficient molecular film for inhibiting volatilization of hazardous nitric acid

Nitric acid, an important basic chemical raw material, plays an important role in promoting the development of national economy. However, such liquid hazardous chemicals are easy to cause accidental leakage during production, transportation, storage and use. The high concentration and corrosive toxic gas generated from decomposition shows tremendous harm to the surrounding environment and human life safety. Therefore, how to inhibit the volatilization of nitric acid and effectively control and block the generation of the toxic gas in the first time are the key to deal with the nitric acid leakage accident. Herein, a new method of molecular film obstruction is proposed to inhibit the nitric acid volatilization. The molecular film inhibitor spontaneously spread and form an insoluble molecular film on the gas-liquid interface, changing the state of nitric acid liquid surface and inhibiting the volatilization on the molecular scale. The inhibition rate up to 96% can be achieved below 45 °C within 400 min. Cluster structure simulation and energy barrier calculation is performed to elucidate the inhibition mechanism. Theoretical analysis of energy barrier shows that the specific resistance of the inhibitor significantly increased to 460 s·cm^-1 at 45 °C, and the generated energy barrier is about 17,000 kJ·mol^-1, which is much higher than the maximum energy required for nitric acid volatilization of 107.97 kJ·mol^-1. The molecular film obstruction strategy can effectively inhibit the volatilization of nitric acid. This strategy paves the way for preventing the volatilization of liquid hazardous chemicals in accidental leakage treatment.