MODEL STUDIES DIRECTED AT THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW THERMAL OXIDATIVE STABILITY ENHANCING ADDITIVES FOR FUTURE JET FUELS

Thermal stressing of a Jet A fuel containing triphenylphosphine (TPP) as an additive results in a significant enhancement in thermal oxidati ve stability. Efforts to elucidate the mechanism(s) responsible for th e observed thermal oxidative stability enhancement are reported, Data presented for the reaction of TPP with molecular oxygen show two pathw ays to be important. In particular, in nonpolar solvents and in the pr esence of BHT, the data. are consistent with TPP playing an oxygen sca venging role via operation of an electron-transfer-initiated-oxygenati on chain mechanism. The significances of these findings to the potenti al development of a new generation of thermal oxidative stability enha ncing additives is discussed.