Kinetics of the reactions of hydrogen atoms with ethylene and vinyl fluoride

Abstract

Hydrogen atoms generated in a Wood-Bonhoeffer discharge were reacted with vinyl fluoride and ethylene. The products of the vinyl fluoride reaction were: HF, C₂H₄, C₂H₆, C₂H₂, CH₄, C₃H₆, n-C₄H₁₀ and C₃H₈. With the exception of HF, all were quantitatively studied over the temperature range 303–603 K. The reaction of ethylene under similar conditions gave: C₂H₆, C₃H₈, n-C₄H₁₀ and CH₄. The kinetics and mechanisms of both reactions have been studied in detail. The rate constants have been calculated for each step of the mechanisms for three temperatures allowing determination of activation energies. The calculation of the rate constants and testing of the mechanisms was accomplished by numerical integration of the simultaneous differential equations for each species involved in the reactions.