REACTIONS OF OXYGEN ACTIVATED BY ELECTRICAL DISCHARGE WITH BUTENE-1

Reactions of oxygen activated by electrical discharge with butene-1 have been studied in a "spherical diffusion" reaction zone. When small concentrations of oxygen are passed through the discharge tube in helium as the carrier gas, and the concentration of butene-1 in the reaction zone is sufficiently high, the observed products are entirely explainable by an interaction of the ground-state oxygen atoms with butene-1. With large deviations from these conditions considerable complexities arise, and under some conditions α-butylene ozonide and its decomposition products become important and the products are then explainable without any significant participation of oxygen atoms in the process.