Pyrolysis of hydrocarbons, gas phase

Some Recent Developments in the Gas-Phase Pyrolysis of Hydrocarbons... 

A great many reactions in physics and chemistry proceed via chain mechanisms. This large family of mechanisms includes free radical and ionic polymerization, Fischer Tropsch synthesis, gas phase pyrolysis of hydrocarbons, and catalytic cracking. Nuclear reactions, of both the power generating and the explosive kind, are also chain processes. Notice that chemical chain reactions can be catalytic or non-catalytic, homogeneous or heterogeneous. One is almost tempted to say that chain reactions are the preferred route of conversion in nature. 

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