Oxidation of styrene. The peroxy radical addition mechanism

2 OXIDATION OF STYRENE. THE PEROXY RADICAL ADDITION MECHANISM 

At low pressures of oxygen (below 100 torr at 50° C), more styrene units than oxygen are incorporated in the polymer product so that some styrene units appear adjacent to each other. The important elementary 

The detailed competition among propagation steps was worked out by Mayo and coworkers [20—24] however, the oxidation process is complicated still further by self-initiation [25,26] and by first-order termination [27]. 

The relatively high reactivity of the tertiary hydrogen in isobutane and the stability of the derivative -butyl hydroperoxide make isobutane an ideal but unusual substrate for studies of the oxidation of alkanes. Winkler and Heame [28] reported that the initiated oxidation of liquid isobutane at 125°C gave 75% f-BuOOH, 21% f-BuOH with small amounts of acetone and isobutyl derivatives. 

A detailed study of both the liquid and gas phase oxidations at 50— 155°C was reported by Allara et al. [29] in 1968. The kinetics and products of the liquid phase oxidation are largely explained by the steps 

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