Abstract
We investigate the self-reaction of benzyl, C7H7, in a high-temperature pyrolysis reactor. The work is motivated by the observation that resonance-stabilized benzyl radicals can accumulate in reactive environments and contribute to the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and soot. Reaction products are detected by IR/UV ion dip spectroscopy, using infrared radiation from the free electron laser FELIX, and are identified by comparison with computed spectra. Among the reaction products identified by their IR absorption are several PAHs linked to toluene combustion such as bibenzyl, phenanthrene, diphenylmethane, and fluorene. The identification of 9,10-dihydrophenanthrene provides evidence for a mechanism of phenanthrene formation from bibenzyl that proceeds by initial cyclization rather than an initial hydrogen loss to stilbene.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 7647-7652 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Chemistry - A European Journal |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue number | 30 |
| Early online date | 12 Mar 2018 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 28 May 2018 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Funding
This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemein-schaft, contract FI 575/8-2. Furthermore, the research leading to these results has received funding from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement no. 312284 and from LASERLAB-EUROPE (grant agreement no. 654148, European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme). We gratefully thank the FELIX staff for their experimental support and we acknowledge the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) for the support of the FELIX Laboratory. Fur- thermore we would like to thank Jana Hemberger for creating the front cover illustration.
Keywords
- gas-phase reactions
- high-temperature chemistry
- IR spectroscopy
- pyrolysis
- radical reactions