Safety
Solid diazonium halides are often dangerously explosive, and fatalities and injuries have been reported. Diazonium chlorides are processed without delay once prepared, but at the low temperature that the diazotization reaction is conducted at the product may be poorly soluble in aqueous solvent, and it may happen that one prepared a supersaturated solution that the salt may crystallize out of. Done on a technical scale this has the potential for disaster.
Diazonium salts with weakly coordinating anions are quite stable. In fact, aryl diazonium perchlorates, such as nitrobenzenediazonium perchlorate, have been used in initiating explosives, and well dried, the tetrafluoroborates can be stored almost indefinitely at room temperature and decompose gently when heated.
Read more about this topic: Diazonium Compound
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