Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Azides from PEG-N3?

Hunterman2244 - 28-10-2022 at 09:10

Poly(ethylene glycol)-N3 is commonly found in laundry odorizer beads, serving to bind perfumes to articles of clothing and release them over time. Is there any way to prepare azide salts from PEG-azide?

njl - 29-10-2022 at 06:12

Well I've never heard of PEG azide and a cursory google search shows its used predictably in click chem and biology. I don't see any launndry products. More importantly though, the concentration of azide in these products and if it can be recovered. As for azide content, as I said I didn't find the product you're looking at but I'm guessing the PEG N3 would be a relatively small part of the mix. Then theres the question of can you extract azide ions from the compound. Here I am also leaning to the negative since they are alkyl azides so short of maybe roasting with NaOH I doubt anything will leave them intact. Overall no probably not a great way to get azide.

Hunterman2244 - 29-10-2022 at 10:56

Quote: Originally posted by njl  
Well I've never heard of PEG azide and a cursory google search shows its used predictably in click chem and biology. I don't see any launndry products. More importantly though, the concentration of azide in these products and if it can be recovered. As for azide content, as I said I didn't find the product you're looking at but I'm guessing the PEG N3 would be a relatively small part of the mix. Then theres the question of can you extract azide ions from the compound. Here I am also leaning to the negative since they are alkyl azides so short of maybe roasting with NaOH I doubt anything will leave them intact. Overall no probably not a great way to get azide.


I was also unable to find any online references to it, but it is the first ingredient in "Downy April Fresh" laundry beads(this can be seen on amazon:https://a.co/d/dslskUu), on further investigation it is also a common component of other similar Downy branded products(i couldn't confirm other brands online). It seems to be the main component from what I can tell. I also wondered about basic hyrolysis but I wasn't sure what conditions to use to avoid decomposition. Should this be done in the absence of water to avoid HN3 evolution?

Dr.Bob - 30-10-2022 at 12:28

I really doubt that you would be able to recover any usable amount of azide ions from laundry products. Older air bags had sodim azide in them, but they are not trivial to take apart, but that might be safer. But some air bags contain mixtures of several chemicals now. Good luck.