Herzon Lab_2022_Azidotrimethylsilane Spill

While closing a freezer (CRB 211/Freezer 1), a small bottle of azidotrimethylsilane (CAS: 4648-54-8) fell out of the freezer. Upon hitting the ground, the cap broke into several pieces. As the bottle contained only a small amount of reagent, I elected to quench the reagent rather than transferring it to a new container. I reasoned that the hydrolysis of azidotrimethylsilane under acidic conditions would yield hydrazoic acid (CAS: 7782-79-8) which is volatile, toxic, and potentially explosive. As such, I submerged the bottle and the bottle cap pieces in a mixture of water, sodium hydroxide, and toluene based reasoning that (1) hydrolysis under basic conditions using sodium hydroxide would yield sodium azide (CAS: 26628-22-8) which is not volatile (and therefore less hazardous than hydrazoic acid) and (2) toluene would serve as an inert organic solvent to solubilize the azidotrimethylsilane and facilitate its interaction with the aqueous sodium hydroxide. Several hours later, I removed the solids and submitted the resulting mixture of water, sodium hydroxide, toluene, and, presumably, sodium azide to EHS for disposal. Eric D. Huseman eric.huseman@yale.edu Postdoctoral Associate Herzon Lab Department of Chemistry Yale University