High-Temperature Unimolecular Decomposition Pathways for Thiophene Angayle K
Article pubs.acs.org/JPCA Modeling Oil Shale Pyrolysis: High-Temperature Unimolecular Decomposition Pathways for Thiophene AnGayle K. Vasiliou,*,† Hui Hu,‡ Thomas W. Cowell,† Jared C. Whitman,† Jessica Porterfield,∥,§ and Carol A. Parish‡ † Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont 05753, United States ‡ Department of Chemistry, Gottwald Center for the Sciences, University of Richmond, Richmond, Virginia 23713, United States § Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, United States ABSTRACT: The thermal decomposition mechanism of thiophene has been investigated both experimentally and theoretically. Thermal decomposition experiments were done using a 1 mm × 3 cm pulsed silicon carbide microtubular Δ → reactor, C4H4S+ Products. Unlike previous studies these experiments were able to identify the initial thiophene decomposition products. Thiophene was entrained in either Ar, Ne, or He carrier gas, passed through a heated (300−1700 K) SiC microtubular reactor (roughly ≤100 μs residence time), and exited into a vacuum chamber. The resultant molecular beam was probed by photoionization mass spec- troscopy and IR spectroscopy. The pyrolysis mechanisms of thiophene were also investigated with the CBS-QB3 method using UB3LYP/6-311++G(2d,p) optimized geometries. In particular, these electronic structure methods were used to explore pathways for the formation of elemental sulfur as well as for fi the formation of H2S and 1,3-butadiyne. Thiophene was found to undergo unimolecular decomposition by ve pathways: C4H4S → − − (1) S C CH2 + HCCH, (2) CS + HCCCH3, (3) HCS + HCCCH2, (4) H2S + HCC CCH, and (5) S + HCC CH fi CH2. The experimental and theoretical ndings are in excellent agreement.
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