Hydrocarbon hydrogenation, molecular reaction model

It has been generally accepted that the thermal decomposition of paraffinic hydrocarbons proceeds via a free radical chain mechanism [2], In order to explain the different product distributions obtained in terms of experimental conditions (temperature, pressure), two mechanisms were proposed. The first one was by Kossiakoff and Rice [3], This R-K model comes from the studies of low molecular weight alkanes at high temperature (> 600 °C) and atmospheric pressure. In these conditions, the unimolecular reactions are favoured. The alkyl radicals undergo successive decomposition by [3-scission, the main primary products are methane, ethane and 1-alkenes [4], The second one was proposed by Fabuss, Smith and Satterfield [5]. It is adapted to low temperature (< 450 °C) but high pressure (> 100 bar). In this case, the bimolecular reactions are favoured (radical addition, hydrogen abstraction). Thus, an equimolar distribution ofn-alkanes and 1-alkenes is obtained. 

The photo-oxidation of n-butane has been modelled by ab initio and DFT computational methods, in which the key role of 1- and 2-butoxyl radicals was confirmed.52 These radicals, formed from the reaction of the corresponding butyl radicals with molecular oxygen, account for the formation of the major oxidation products including hydrocarbons, peroxides, aldehydes, and peroxyaldehydes. The differing behaviour of n-pentane and cyclopentane towards autoignition at 873 K has been found to depend on the relative concentrations of resonance-stabilized radicals in the reaction medium.53 The manganese-mediated oxidation of dihydroanthracene to anthracene has been reported via hydrogen atom abstraction.54 The oxidation reactions of hydrocarbon radicals and their OH adducts are reported.55... 

Hypotheses for the origin of meteoritic organic matter must account for its molecular and isotopic composition and be consistent with models of meteorite petrogenesis consequently, a number of potential environments have been considered (Table 9). Until the early 1990s, the favored hypothesis involved the catalytic hydrogenation of CO in the solar nebula. However, a characteristic of such catalytic reactions is their structural selectivity. FTT synthesis, in particular, produces a structurally selective suite of hydrocarbons and other compounds that, initially, were believed to... 

Naito et al. studied hydrogenation with use of adsorption measurements, mass spectrometry, and microwave spectroscopy for product analysis. In the room temperature deuteriation of propene, butene, and 1,3-butadiene, the main products were [ H2]-propane, [ H2]-butane, and l,2-[ H2]-but-l-ene, respectively. They showed, using mixtures of H2 and D2, that deuterium was added in the molecular form and at a rate proportional to the partial pressure of D2, as opposed to D surface coverage the reaction rates were zero order in hydrocarbon. They proposed, therefore, in contrast to the model of Dent and Kokes for ethene (but note in this case that reaction rate was 0.5 order in hydrogen pressure and proportional to ethene surface coverage), that hydrogenation proceeded by interaction of adsorbed hydrocarbon with gas-phase D2, that is by an Eley-Rideal mechanism. 

The approach to hydrocarbon cracking taken by the Froment school is to model the actual elementary steps of radicals at the various molecular configurations [38]. These are relatively few initiation hydrogen abstraction from a primary, secondary, or tertiary carbon and radical decomposition by scission of a carbon-carbon bond in /3-position to the unpaired electron. Boolean relation matrices are used to reflect the structures of the hydrocarbon reactants by indicating the existence and location of all their carbon-carbon bonds. Computer software generates reaction networks on the basis of known rate coefficients and activation energies at the various positions. Froment states the number of components in naphtha cracking as around 200, that of radicals as 40, and that of elementary radical steps... 

We have studied the reaction of molecular hydrogen with transition-metal carbene complexes as a model for the termination step in the synthesis of hydrocarbons and alcohols from CO and hydrogen (IS). 

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