Hindered phenol

Description

A class of Antioxidant added to varnishes and polymers to minimize thermal oxidative degradation. Hindered phenols are phenols with one or more bulky functional groups such as a tertiary butyl (Mills and White 1994). They are free radical scavengers that combine with peroxy and alkoxy radicals to break any autocatalytic cycle. Hindered phenols are not very effective for photochemical oxidation and may produce colored byproducts. One common hindered phenol is Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT).

Resources and Citations

• R.de la Rie, "Polymer Stabilizers. A Survey with Reference to Possible Applications in the Conservation Field" Studies in Conservation 33:9-22,1988

• Richard S. Lewis, Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 10th ed., 1993

• John S. Mills, Raymond White, The Organic Chemistry of Museum Objects, Butterworth Heineman, London, 2nd ed., 1994