napthalene

[cougarfan]

Can you overheat napthalene and thus burn it or degrade it?

 

[rbcoulter]

Like many organics, it will burn (combustible solid).

 

[25362]

Following Othmer's Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, pure naphthalene ignites at 79[sup]o[/sup]C, melts at 80.3[sup]o[/sup]C, and boils at 218[sup]o[/sup]C.
It can be biodegraded, as given in

http://www.labmed.umn.edu/naph/naph_map.html

directed by the underlined word naphthalene this site will bring you to all pertinent websites dealing with the chemical.

 

[cougarfan]

Let me explain further, we are going to store napthalene in a stoarge tank and use steam to keep it warm. Can I get the napthalene too hot and thus degrade the product? If so, what temperature would that be?

 

[TD2K]

The decomposition temperature is given here (

http://avogadro.chem.iastate.edu/MSDS/naphthalene.htm)

as 540C so I doubt thermal degradation is going to be a problem.

In any event, you'll have a bigger problem long before it starts to degrade (I assume you mean atmospheric storage tank) since it will start boiling at 218C.