Abstract
IN order to explain the observed features of the pyrolysis of paraffin hydrocarbons in the presence of such rate-inhibitors as nitric oxide, propylene and isobutene, it has been suggested1 that the uninhibited reaction consists of two independent, concurrent mechanisms. The first is assumed to be an unbranched free-radical chain process, the second, a molecular elimination process. It is assumed1 that the former can be entirely suppressed by the addition of sufficient inhibitor. In the pyrolysis of n-butane, for example, the reactions responsible for the production of the major products through the free-radical mechanism are most likely to be: 
and, in the supposedly molecular portion of he reaction : 
Both mechanisms predict equal yields of ethylene and ethane.
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PURNELL, J., QUINN, C. Nature of the Reactions involved in the Pyrolysis of n-Butane inhibited by Propylene. Nature 189, 656–658 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/189656b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/189656b0
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