Computer analysis of reaction profiles

The presence of hydrocarbon impurities has been shown to affect the oxidation of carbon monoxide [22] and the decomposition of carbon dioxide [23]. It has been reported that the dissociations of ethane [24] and butane [25] at the elevated temperatures and typical densities of shock tube experiments are in the low pressure region with activation energies that are much less than their respective high pressure limit values. The reaction of p.p.m. levels of hydrogen atoms with the molecule under investigation can result in a low apparent energy for dissociation due to the increased importance of abstraction steps. 

An excess amount of a particular reactant may be purposely added to the shock mixture to accentuate a particular reaction pathway and also provide information about the efficiency of a distinctive colliding partner. The decomposition of HCl was followed in a larger amount of CI2 in order to observe the dissociation in excess of chlorine atoms [26]. These experiments rested upon the fact that the chlorine dissociation is much faster than that of HCl. Thus, the chlorine exchange contribution 

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