Kinetics of the reactions of fluorine and chlorine atoms with ethylene oxide (oxirane)

The kinetics of the reactions of F and C1 atoms with ethylene oxide have been studied using relative rate techniques in 10–700 Torr of either nitrogen or air diluent at 295 ± 2 K; k (F + C 2 H 4 O) = (9.4 ± 1.6) × 10 −11 and k (C1 + C 2 H 4 O) = (5.0 ± 0.9) × 10 −12 cm 3 molecule −1 s −1 . The result for k (F + C 2 H 4 O) is in good agreement with the literature data. The result for k (C1 + C 2 H 4 O) is a factor of 5.6 lower than that reported previously. It seems likely that in the previous study most of the loss of C 2 H 4 O attributed to reaction with C1 atoms was actually caused by unwanted secondary reactions leading to an overestimate of k (C1 + C 2 H 4 O). © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 34: 122–125, 2002