Inhibition effect of aluminum dust explosions by one novel zinc borate

[Display omitted] •The novel zinc borate (NZB) is synthesized by the neutralization reaction.•The inhibition effect of NZB for aluminum dust explosion is studied.•NZB shows superior inhibition effect than already used zinc borate (ZB2335).•Inhibition mechanism of NZB for aluminum dust explosion is analyzed. In this study, one novel zinc borate (NZB) was successfully synthesized by the neutralization reaction and adopted for inhibiting aluminum dust explosion. The results of pyrolysis characteristics suggested that the initial decomposition temperature decreased by 178℃ and heat absorption per unit increased by 234.13 J/g compared with zinc borate with 3.5 H2O (ZB2335). The inhibition effectiveness of NZB for aluminum dust explosion was investigated systematically. Results showed that the maximum explosion pressure and maximum rate of pressure rise reduced by 96.7% and 95.0% correspondingly after adding NZB with a concentration of 600 g/m3 (minimum inhibition concentration). From the view of minimum inhibition concentration, NZB showed superior inhibition performance than ZB2335 (1000 g/m3). Combining with the results of SEM, TG-DSC and XRD analysis, the inhibition mechanism of NZB was revealed in depth, which was mainly derived from endothermic effect, surface coating effect and oxidizer dilution effect.