Kinetics and mechanism of the reaction of dimethyldioxirane with cumene

The reaction of dimethyldioxirane with cumene (22–52°C) follows a chain-radical mechanism. The kinetic regularities of this reaction were studied by the chemiluminescence and kinetic UV spectrophotometry methods by monitoring the consumption of dioxirane. The process is inhibited by oxygen. In the absence of O₂, the process is accelerated due to the decomposition of dimethyldioxirane induced by alkyl radicals. In this case, the reaction occurs according to a complicated kinetic law including the first and second orders with respect to dioxirane. Based on the kinetics and reaction products, the scheme of the process was proposed. Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 4, pp. 694–702, April, 1997.