A pulse radiolysis study of H atom reactions with aliphatic alcohols: evaluation of kinetics by direct optical absorption measurement

Abstract

The kinetics of the reactions of hydrogen atoms with aliphatic alcohols in aqueous solution were studied by pulse radiolysis. The rate constants for the reaction of hydrogen atoms with methanol, ethanol, 2-propanol and tert-butyl alcohol were determined from the increase in optical absorption in the UV region to be 1.1 × 10⁶, 1.75 × 10⁷, 5.3 × 10⁷ and 2.3 × 10⁵ dm³ mol⁻¹ s⁻¹, respectively. The bimolecular decay rate constants of the first two alcohol radicals were evaluated to be 2.4 × 10⁹ and 1.5 × 10⁹ dm³ mol⁻¹ s⁻¹.