F. O. Rice, W. D. Walters
Nov 1, 1939
Citations
0
Influential Citations
16
Citations
Journal
Journal of Chemical Physics
Abstract
The products formed in the decomposition of diacetyl indicate an over‐all reaction, CH3COCOCH3→CH4+CO+CH2=CO, followed by some decomposition and polymerization of the ketene. The reaction, as measured by pressure change, is first order and is only slightly affected by a large increase in the surface‐volume ratio of the reaction vessel. The decomposition has a surprisingly high frequency factor of the order of 1017. A free radical scheme has been proposed for the decomposition but in its present form this scheme does not explain the high frequency factor.