Thermal Decomposition of Acetaldehyde and Ethylene Oxides: Existence of Short-Lived Intermediates

Abstract

THE writer of the section of the Annual Reports of the Chemical Society, which has just been published, tells us that the results of the investigations of Hinshelwood and his co-workers on one hand, and of myself and my co-workers on the other, lead to the conclusion that the decomposition of acetaldehyde is influenced by chain mechanism at low temperatures but not at high temperatures. Whether the conclusion could justly be drawn from the published information available to the writer of the section of the Report is a matter of opinion; but it appears to be negatived by the results of more recent work.