On the interaction of hydroperoxide and inhibitor molecules

Decomposition of 1‐phenylethyl‐hydroperoxide has been studied in the presence of 2,6‐di‐ tert ‐butyl‐4‐methyl‐phenol inhibitor in ethylbenzene and chlorobenzene both in oxygen and nitrogen. The oxygen consumption and the inhibitor concentrations were measured against the initial inhibitor concentrations. Two methods were applied for the determination of the rate coefficients of the reaction:\documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$$ {\rm HROOH + InH}\mathop {\hbox to 30pt{\rightarrowfill}}\limits^{k_1 } {\rm HRO}^{\rm .} + {\rm In}^{\rm .} + {\rm H}_{\rm 2} {\rm O} $$\end{document}Its value is about 3 × 10 −4 L × mol −1 × S −1 , at 120°C. However, large experimental errors we deal with, the existence of a reaction yielding radicals, presumably an interaction between hydroperoxide and inhibitor molecules, can be established emphasizing the importance of measurements carried out with various initial concentrations of the inhibitor.