Kinetic and Mechanistic Study of the Thermal Decomposition of Ethyl Nitrate.

ABSTRACT Thermal decomposition of ethyl nitrate (ENT; CH3CH2ONO2) has been studied in a low-pressure flow reactor combined with a quadrupole mass spectrometer. The rate constant of the nitrate decomposition was measured as a function of pressure (1-12.5 Torr of helium) and temperature in the range 464-673 K using two different approaches: from kinetics of ENT loss and those of the formation of the reaction product (CH3 radical). The fit of the observed falloff curves with two-parameter expression [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]