Evidence for strongly temperature-dependent A factors in alkane decomposition and high heats of formation for alkyl radicals

The experimental data on alkane decomposition from shock-tube and radical buffer studies and radical combination from very-low-pressure pyrolysis and modulation spectroscopy are shown to be consistent. They lead to experimental A factors which decrease by factors of 10–2000 from 300° to 1100°K. Heats of formation for ethyl, isopropyl, and t-butyl radicals have been found to be 10, 10 and 20 kJ higher than currently accepted numbers from metathesis reactions.