AnGayle K. Vasiliou

Thermal Decomposition of Furan Generates Propargyl Radicals

The thermal decomposition of furan has been studied by a 1 mm x 2 cm tubular silicon carbide reactor, C(4)H(4)O + Delta --> products. Unlike previous studies, these experiments are able to identify the initial furan decomposition products. Furan is entrained in either He or Ar carrier gas and is passed through a heated (1600 K) SiC tubular reactor. Furan decomposes during transit through the tubular reactor (approximately 65 micros) and exits to a vacuum chamber. Within one nozzle diameter of leaving the nozzle, the gases cool to less than 50 K, and all reactions cease. The resultant molecular beam is interrogated by photoionization mass spectroscopy as well as infrared spectroscopy. Earlier G2(MP2) electronic structure calculations predicted that furan will thermally decompose to acetylene, ketene, carbon monoxide, and propyne at lower temperatures. At higher temperatures, these calculations forecast that propargyl radical could result. We observe all of these species (see Scheme 1). As the pressure in the tubular reactor is raised, the photoionization mass spectra show clear evidence for the formation of aromatic hydrocarbons.

Biomass pyrolysis: Thermal decomposition mechanisms of furfural and benzaldehyde

The thermal decompositions of furfural and benzaldehyde have been studied in a heated microtubular flow reactor. The pyrolysis experiments were carried out by passing a dilute mixture of the aromatic aldehydes (roughly 0.1%-1%) entrained in a stream of buffer gas (either He or Ar) through a pulsed, heated SiC reactor that is 2-3 cm long and 1 mm in diameter. Typical pressures in the reactor are 75-150 Torr with the SiC tube wall temperature in the range of 1200-1800 K. Characteristic residence times in the reactor are 100-200 μsec after which the gas mixture emerges as a skimmed molecular beam at a pressure of approximately 10 μTorr. Products were detected using matrix infrared absorption spectroscopy, 118.2 nm (10.487 eV) photoionization mass spectroscopy and resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization. The initial steps in the thermal decomposition of furfural and benzaldehyde have been identified. Furfural undergoes unimolecular decomposition to furan + CO: C4H3O-CHO (+ M) → CO + C4H4O. Sequential decomposition of furan leads to the production of HC≡CH, CH2CO, CH3C≡CH, CO, HCCCH2, and H atoms. In contrast, benzaldehyde resists decomposition until higher temperatures when it fragments to phenyl radical plus H atoms and CO: C6H5CHO (+ M) → C6H5CO + H → C6H5 + CO + H. The H atoms trigger a chain reaction by attacking C6H5CHO: H + C6H5CHO → [C6H6CHO]* → C6H6 + CO + H. The net result is the decomposition of benzaldehyde to produce benzene and CO.

Thermal decomposition of CH3CHO studied by matrix infrared spectroscopy and photoionization mass spectroscopy.

A heated SiC microtubular reactor has been used to decompose acetaldehyde and its isotopomers (CH(3)CDO, CD(3)CHO, and CD(3)CDO). The pyrolysis experiments are carried out by passing a dilute mixture of acetaldehyde (roughly 0.1%-1%) entrained in a stream of a buffer gas (either He or Ar) through a heated SiC reactor that is 2-3 cm long and 1 mm in diameter. Typical pressures in the reactor are 50-200 Torr with the SiC tube wall temperature in the range 1200-1900 K. Characteristic residence times in the reactor are 50-200 μs after which the gas mixture emerges as a skimmed molecular beam at a pressure of approximately 10 μTorr. The reactor has been modified so that both pulsed and continuous modes can be studied, and results from both flow regimes are presented. Using various detection methods (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and both fixed wavelength and tunable synchrotron radiation photoionization mass spectrometry), a number of products formed at early pyrolysis times (roughly 100-200 μs) are identified: H, H(2), CH(3), CO, CH(2)=CHOH, HC≡CH, H(2)O, and CH(2)=C=O; trace quantities of other species are also observed in some of the experiments. Pyrolysis of rare isotopomers of acetaldehyde produces characteristic isotopic signatures in the reaction products, which offers insight into reaction mechanisms that occur in the reactor. In particular, while the principal unimolecular processes appear to be radical decomposition CH(3)CHO (+M) → CH(3) + H + CO and isomerization of acetaldehyde to vinyl alcohol, it appears that the CH(2)CO and HCCH are formed (perhaps exclusively) by bimolecular reactions, especially those involving hydrogen atom attacks.

Chirped-Pulse millimeter-Wave spectroscopy for dynamics and kinetics studies of pyrolysis reactions.

A Chirped-Pulse millimeter-Wave (CPmmW) spectrometer is applied to the study of chemical reaction products that result from pyrolysis in a Chen nozzle heated to 1000-1800 K. Millimeter-wave rotational spectroscopy unambiguously determines, for each polar reaction product, the species, the conformers, relative concentrations, conversion percentage from precursor to each product, and, in some cases, vibrational state population distributions. A chirped-pulse spectrometer can, within the frequency range of a single chirp, sample spectral regions of up to ∼10 GHz and simultaneously detect many reaction products. Here we introduce a modification to the CPmmW technique in which multiple chirps of different spectral content are applied to a molecular beam pulse that contains the pyrolysis reaction products. This technique allows for controlled allocation of its sensitivity to specific molecular transitions and effectively doubles the bandwidth of the spectrometer. As an example, the pyrolysis reaction of ethyl nitrite, CH3CH2ONO, is studied, and CH3CHO, H2CO, and HNO products are simultaneously observed and quantified, exploiting the multi-chirp CPmmW technique. Rotational and vibrational temperatures of some product molecules are determined. Subsequent to supersonic expansion from the heated nozzle, acetaldehyde molecules display a rotational temperature of 4 ± 1 K. Vibrational temperatures are found to be controlled by the collisional cooling in the expansion, and to be both species- and vibrational mode-dependent. Rotational transitions of vibrationally excited formaldehyde in levels ν4, 2ν4, 3ν4, ν2, ν3, and ν6 are observed and effective vibrational temperatures for modes 2, 3, 4, and 6 are determined and discussed.

Thermal Decomposition Mechanism for Ethanethiol

The thermal decomposition of ethanethiol was studied using a 1 mm × 2 cm pulsed silicon carbide microtubular reactor, CH3CH2SH + Δ → Products. Unlike previous studies these experiments were able to identify the initial ethanethiol decomposition products. Ethanethiol was entrained in either an Ar or a He carrier gas, passed through a heated (300-1700 K) SiC microtubular reactor (roughly ≤100 μs residence time) and exited into a vacuum chamber. Within one reactor diameter the gas cools to less than 50 K rotationally, and all reactions cease. The resultant molecular beam was probed by photoionization mass spectroscopy and IR spectroscopy. Ethanethiol was found to undergo unimolecular decomposition by three pathways: CH3CH2SH → (1) CH3CH2 + SH, (2) CH3 + H2C═S, and (3) H2C═CH2 + H2S. The experimental findings are in good agreement with electronic structure calculations.