Reaction of methyl radicals with azoethane

Abstract
The methyl radical was generated by the thermal decomposition of di-tert-butyl peroxide in the temperature range 397–444 K. The relative Arrhenius parameters of the H-abstraction and addition reactions ˙CH3+ C2H5NNC2H5→ CH4+ CH3CHNNC2H5(6), ˙CH3+ C2H5NNC2H5→ C2H5NN(CH3)C2H5(7), log[(k6/k1/2 5)/dm3/2 mol–1/2 s–1/2]=(3.1 ± 0.3)–(30.7 ± 2.6) kJ mol–1/θ, log[(k7/k1/2 5)/dm3/2 mol–1/2 s–1/2]=(4.0 ± 0.5)–(40.5 ± 5.1) kJ mol–1/θ where θ=RT ln 10 and k5 is the rate constant of the reaction 2 ˙CH3→ C2H6(5) were determined from the rate of accumulation of products in the early stages of the reaction.