Nitric oxide oxidation, application kinetics

In one of the most elegant applications of gas-phase inhibition by nitric oxide, Birss, Danby and Hinshelwood have studied the thermal dissociation of r-butyl peroxide. The low temperatures required for pyrolysis permitted mass spectro-metric determination of t-butyl nitrite, and a fairly complete kinetic analysis of the system was possible. The rate of decomposition of peroxide was related to the consumption of nitric oxide and to the appearance of butyl nitrite during the inhibition period, and curves were obtained which showed the acetone and ethane concentrations as a function of time during and after inhibition. 

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