Reaction of atomic oxygen with some simple alkenes. Part 2.—Reaction pathways involving ethene, propene and (E)-but-2-ene at atmospheric pressure

Abstract

Results from a study of the reaction of atomic oxygen with ethene and propene at atmospheric pressure are reported. Pulse radiolysis of CO₂ has been used to generate ground-state atomic oxygen in the presence of the alkenes. The yield of methyl radicals from the reaction of O with ethene, propene and (E)-but-2-ene was measured as 0.70 ± 0.05, 0.15 ± 0.01 and 0.25 ± 0.08, respectively. The yield of the vinyloxyl radical, CH₂CHO, from the reaction of O atoms with propene was found to be 0.12 ± 0.03, in good agreement with the methyl radical yield. An upper limit for other radical-producing channels for this reaction of 0.21 ± 0.07 was derived. The formyl radical (HCO) was also searched for in the ethene and propene systems but was not detected in either, which placed an upper limit on its yield of 0.03 in both systems.