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Direct Observation of the Ethyl Radical in the Pyrolysis of Ethane

We report the first direct detection of ethyl radical in the pyrolysis of ethane. Observation of this vital intermediate was made possible in this extremely reactive environment by the use of a microreactor coupled with synchrotron radiation and photoelectron photoion coincidence (PEPICO) spectrosco...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2023-08, Vol.62 (32), p.e202305881-n/a
Main Authors: Genossar‐Dan, Nadav, Atlas, Sharona, Fux, Dana, Har Lavan, Shani, Zamir, Uri, Rozenberg, Illya, Lam Nguyen, Thanh, Hemberger, Patrick, Baraban, Joshua H.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We report the first direct detection of ethyl radical in the pyrolysis of ethane. Observation of this vital intermediate was made possible in this extremely reactive environment by the use of a microreactor coupled with synchrotron radiation and photoelectron photoion coincidence (PEPICO) spectroscopy, despite its short lifetime and low concentration. Together with ab‐initio master equation‐calculated rates and fully coupled computational fluid dynamics simulations, our measurements show that even under the low pressures and short residence times in our experiment, ethyl formation can only be explained by bimolecular reactions; the most important is the catalytic attack of ethane by H atoms, which are then regenerated by decomposition of the nascent ethyl radicals. Our results complete the observation of all hypothesized intermediates in this industrially important process and highlight the need for further studies under additional conditions using similar methods to improve existing models and optimize process chemistries. We directly detect the ethyl radical intermediate in ethane pyrolysis for the first time, and reveal new insights into the reaction mechanism based upon our observations. This advance was enabled by a combination of isotopic microreactor studies, master equation based kinetics calculations, and threshold photoelectron‐photoion coincidence spectroscopy.
ISSN:1433-7851
1521-3773
DOI:10.1002/anie.202305881