Abstract
Pyrolysis of several binary mixtures composed of ethane, propane, n-butane, i-butane, and neopentane at small extents of reaction has been studied in order to extend the method previously proposed for a single component to the prediction of the initial pyrolytic products from mixtures. In the pyrolysis of each binary system, generally, one component disappears faster than when it is pyrolyzed by itself, while the rate of disappearance of the other component changes little. In particular, the rate of propane decomposition increases by a maximum of 2.8 times in the propane-neopentane mixture.
The product distributions from mixtures are approximately uniform with the extents of reaction, being analogous to the case of single components. The distributions of the mixtures predicted on the basis of the results for the single components are found to be in good agreement with those experimentally observed, with the assumption that the selectivity to products of a single component is maintained in its mixture system. The reaction can be accounted for by a free-radical chain mechanism, and it is confirmed that the change of overall reaction rate, affected by the existence of the other component, depends on the concentration of hydrogen atoms and methyl radicals, and that the initiation reaction rate of each component has a central role.
