Hypothetical question here-
If a bottle of diethyl ether or dioxane is found to have a dangerous level of peroxide, should a radical scavenger/antioxidant like BHT be added to reduce the risk of explosion, or is that likely to trigger an explosion by the reaction with the peroxide?
Once the peroxide is up to a hazardous level, the ether is too dangerous to work with. You might be able to delay the rise in peroxide with certain oxygen radical scavengers, but there would be no easy and obvious signs of when the scavenger was depleted or no longer effective. Also, these scavengers might interfere with the later analysis, extraction, or reaction of your target substance.
This was assuming the ether is not to be used any more but sent to chemical disposal because the level of peroxide is already hazardous. To reduce the risk of an explosion during disposal, is it helpful to add scavenger, or will that actually present a risk of triggering an explosion? Due to sudden reaction of all the accumulated peroxides with the scavenger.
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