The thermal decomposition of diethyl ether. III. The action of inhibitors and the mechanism of the reaction

Abstract
Small quantities of nitric oxide reduce the rate of thermal decomposition of diethyl ether at 525 °C to about one-quarter. Much larger amounts accelerate the decomposition, but the concentration ranges in which the ‘ maximally inhibited ’ reaction and the ‘ nitric-oxide-induced’ reaction can be studied are so widely separated that these reactions can be treated as two distinct entities. The ‘uninhibited’ reaction constitutes a third. Reaction products and kinetics are recorded for all three, and nitric oxide consumption is measured for the first two. In all three the major products are the same, with secondary differences which are discussed. In the presence of nitric oxide small amounts of cyanides and other compounds are formed. In the nitric-oxide-induced reaction 1.4 molecules of ether are decomposed for each molecule of nitric oxide used up: in the maximally inhibited reaction the ratio, which is dependent on the ether pressure, is very much greater. The rate of the maximally inhibited reaction is independent of the concentration of nitric oxide, or of propylene, and the same for the two inhibitors (as is now proved by direct analysis). The first-order rate constant varies with the initial pressure of ether according to the equation k inhib. = ( A [ether])/(1 + B [ether]) + C [ether]. The rate constant of the uninhibited reaction varies with ether pressure according to an expression which, although probably of different algebraical form, is empirically similar to the above over a considerable range. The nitric-oxide-induced reaction is nearly of the first order with respect both to ether pressure and to nitric oxide pressure. The maximally inhibited reaction is shown to be most probably a molecular decomposition of the ether. The uninhibited reaction is predominantly a chain reaction, the mechanism of which is discussed. The nitric-oxide-induced reaction, it is suggested on the basis of the experimental evidence, is largely initiated by a generation of radicals in an attack of nitric oxide on ether. It is possibly also in part a molecular decomposition of ether caused by collision with nitric oxide.

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