Pyrolytic eliminations in the gas phase

MaccolP has written a comprehensive review on the pyrolysis of alkyl halides. A description of the experimental techniques which are used in the 

A number of non-stereospecific acetate and xanthate pyrolyses have been observed . /4 t/-elimination is rationalised by invoking neighbouring-group participation by an appropriately situated methyl ester group in one case . The array of products arising from one of the xanthate pyrolyses can be accounted for in terms of competing heterolytic and homolytic eliminations . The pyrolyses of isothiocyanates and thiocyanates bear a close resemblance to the ester eliminations . 

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