Wall-less reactor studies. Part 3.—n-Butane pyrolysis

Abstract

The wall-less reactor technique has been applied to study the kinetics of pyrolysis of n-butane between 984 and 1065 K in excess argon at 600 Torr in complete absence of solid surfaces. The chain mechanism and rate constants deduced from conventional studies are shown to give an excellent quantitative account of the observed homogeneous kinetics. The only revision of this established data suggested is a small decrease in the rate constant for decomposition of n-butane into two ethyl radicals to (3.8 ± 0.6)× 10^–2 s^–1 at 1025 K. The free energy of formation of ethyl deduced from this rate constant and that for the reverse process is discussed.