Decomposition, quantitative reaction

A simplified method for near-quantitative estimation of the exothermicity (energy of exothermic decomposition /unit mass) of products or reaction mixtures, which is suitable for a hand-calculator, is presented. It is based on the difference between the total energies of atomization of all the bonds in the starting material(s) and of those in the likely products of decomposition or reaction, rather than on the group contribution methods used with computer programs, which are more accurate but... 

Sometimes thermal decomposition and reaction can be shown by variation of injection port temperature, and possibly column temperature. The only real solution is to operate at as low a temperature as possible and perhaps use "on-column injection. Low-loaded columns sometimes help. Use of glass columns and glass injection port liners often relieve the problem of unwanted thermal degradation and may help in some cases. However, in all cases the precision and accuracy of the quantitative analysis will be affected until a solution is found or until a decision is made to "live with it."... 

The automation of the single dynamic DSC scan approach has provided an accurate, time efficient, routine method for obtaining quantitative reaction kinetics information for decomposition, polymerization and curing reactions. 

In order to make accurate quantitative predictions of the fall-off behaviour of a unimolecular reaction it is essential to take into account the energy dependence of the rate constant k(E) for the conversion of energized molecules into activated complexes where products results from decomposition or reaction of the energized complex. 

A second approach to gravimetry is to thermally or chemically decompose a solid sample. The volatile products of the decomposition reaction may be trapped and weighed to provide quantitative information. Alternatively, the residue remaining when decomposition is complete may be weighed. In thermogravimetry, which is one form of volatilization gravimetry, the sample s mass is continuously monitored while the applied temperature is slowly increased. 

Hexamethylenetetramine. Pure hexamethylenetetramine [100-97-0] (also called hexamine and HMTA) is a colorless, odorless, crystalline sohd of adamantane-like stmcture (141). It sublimes with decomposition at >200° C but does not melt. Its solubiUty in water varies Htde with temperature, and at 25°C it is 46.5% in the saturated solution. It is a weak monobase aqueous solutions are in the pH 8—8.5 range (142). Hexamethylenetetramine is readily prepared by treating aqueous formaldehyde with ammonia followed by evaporation and crystallisation of the soHd product. The reaction is fast and essentially quantitative (142). 

Unpiotonated hydioxylamine is oxidized rapidly by ozone, / = 2.1 X 10 (39). The reaction of ozone with the lower oxides of nitrogen (NO and NO2) is also rapid and quantitative the end product is nitrogen pentoxide, which is also a catalyst for the decomposition of ozone (45). Nitrous oxide, however, reacts slowly (k < 10 ) (39). Nitrogen-containing anions, eg, nitrite and cyanide, also ate oxidized by ozone (39). Nitrite is oxidized to nitrate (fc = 3.7 X 10 and cyanide is oxidized rapidly to cyanate (fc = 2.6 X 10 (46) and 10 -10 (39)). Cyanate, however, is oxidized slowly. 

Some nitrate is also formed, thus the HOCl/NH stoichiometry is greater than theoretical, ie, - 1.7. This reaction, commonly called breakpoint chlorination, involves intermediate formation of unstable dichloramine and has been modeled kinetically (28). Hypobromous acid also oxidizes ammonia via the breakpoint reaction (29). The reaction is virtually quantitative in the presence of excess HOBr. In the case of chlorine, Htde or no decomposition of NH occurs until essentially complete conversion to monochloramine. In contrast, oxidation of NH commences immediately with HOBr because equihbrium concentrations of NH2Br and NHBr2 are formed initially. As a result, the typical hump in the breakpoint curve is much lower than in the case of chlorine. 

Strong dehydrating agents such as phosphorous pentoxide or sulfur trioxide convert chlorosulfuric acid to its anhydride, pyrosulfuryl chloride [7791-27-7] S20 Cl2. Analogous trisulfuryl compounds have been identified in mixtures with sulfur trioxide (3,19). When boiled in the presence of mercury salts or other catalysts, chlorosulfuric acid decomposes quantitatively to sulfuryl chloride and sulfuric acid. The reverse reaction has been claimed as a preparative method (20), but it appears to proceed only under special conditions. Noncatalytic decomposition at temperatures at and above the boiling point also generates sulfuryl chloride, chlorine, sulfur dioxide, and other compounds. 

Attempts to prepare thiosulfuric acid by acidification of stable thiosulfates are invariably thwarted by the ready decomposition of the free acid in the presence of water. The reaction is extremely complex and depends on the conditions used, being dominated by numerous redox interconversions amongst the products these can include sulfur (partly as cyclo-Sf,), SO2, H2S, HiS,. H2SO4 and various polythionates In the absence of water, however, these reactions are avoided and the parent acid is more stable it decomposes quantitatively below 0° according... 

The most reliable method of preparing benzofuroxans is by decomposition of o-nitrophenyl azides. Decomposition can be achieved by irradiation, or more usually by pyrolysis temperatures between 100° and 1.50° are commonly used. Refluxing in glacial acetic acid is the recommended procedure for 4- or 5-sub-stituted 2-nitrophenyl azides, but with 3- or 6-substituted compounds higher boiling solvents are usually necessary. Quantitative studies on the reaction rate have been made, and a cyclic transition state invoked, an argument which has been used to account for the greater difficulty of decomposition of the 6-substituted 2-nitrophenyl azides. Substituent effects on the reaction rate have also been correlated with Hammett a constants, ... 

The decomposition of an initiator seldom produces a quantitative yield of initiating radicals. Most thermal and photochemical initiators generate radicals in pairs. The self-reaction of these radicals is often the major pathway for the direct conversion of primary radicals to non-radical products in solution, bulk or suspension polymerization. This cage reaction is substantial even in bulk polymerization at low conversion when the medium is essentially monomer. The importance of the process depends on the rate of diffusion of these species away from one another. 

Measurements of overall reaction rates (of product formation or of reactant consumption) do not necessarily provide sufficient information to describe completely and unambiguously the kinetics of the constituent steps of a composite rate process. A nucleation and growth reaction, for example, is composed of the interlinked but distinct and different changes which lead to the initial generation and to the subsequent advance of the reaction interface. Quantitative kinetic analysis of yield—time data does not always lead to a unique reaction model but, in favourable systems, the rate parameters, considered with reference to quantitative microscopic measurements, can be identified with specific nucleation and growth steps. Microscopic examinations provide positive evidence for interpretation of shapes of fractional decomposition (a)—time curves. In reactions of solids, it is often convenient to consider separately the geometry of interface development and the chemical changes which occur within that zone of locally enhanced reactivity. 

The Avrami—Erofe ev equation, eqn. (6), has been successfully used in kinetic analyses of many solid phase decomposition reactions examples are given in Chaps. 4 and 5. For no substance, however, has this expression been more comprehensively applied than in the decomposition of ammonium perchlorate. The value of n for the low temperature reaction of large crystals [268] is reduced at a 0.2 from 4 to 3, corresponding to the completion of nucleation. More recently, the same rate process has been the subject of a particularly detailed and rigorous re-analysis by Jacobs and Ng [452] who used a computer to optimize curve fitting. The main reaction (0.01 < a < 1.0) was well described by the exact Avrami equation, eqn. (4), and kinetic interpretation also included an examination of the rates of development and of multiplication of nuclei during the induction period (a < 0.01). The complete kinetic expressions required to describe quantitatively the overall reaction required a total of ten parameters. 

A and E refer to the desorption, dissociation, decomposition or other surface reactions by which the reactant or reactants represented by M are converted into products. If [M] is constant within the temperature interval studied, then the values of A and E measured refer to this process. Alternatively, if the effective magnitude of [M] varies with temperature, the apparent Arrhenius parameters do not specifically refer to the product evolution step. This is demonstrated quantitatively by the following example [36]. When E = 100 kJmole-1 andA [M] = 3.2 X 1030 molecules sec-1, then rate coefficients at 400 and 500 K are 2.4 X 1017 and 1.0 X 1020 molecules sec-1, respectively. If, however, E is again 100 kJ mole-1 and A [M] varies between 3.2 X 1030 molecules sec-1 at 500 K and z X 3.2 X 1030 molecules sec-1 at 400 K, the measured values of A and E vary significantly, as shown in Fig. 7, when z ranges from 10-3 to 103. Thus, the measured value of E is not necessarily identifiable with the rate-limiting step if a concentration of a participant is temperature-dependent. This... 

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