Decomposition of ethylamine through bimolecular reactions

Ethylamine (EA) often serves as a surrogate species to represent aliphatic amines that occur in biofuels. This contribution reports, for the first time, the thermochemical and kinetic parameters for bimolecular reactions of EA with three prominent radicals that form in the initial stages of biomass decomposition; namely, H, CH3 and NH2. ion of a methylene H atom from the EA molecule largely dominates H loss from the two other sites (i.e., methyl and amine hydrogens) for the three considered radicals. We demonstrate that, differences in bond dissociation enthalpies of methylene C-H bonds among EA, ethanol and propane reflect their corresponding HOMO/LUMO energy gaps. At low and intermediate temperatures, the rate of H abstraction from the methylene site in EA exceeds the corresponding values for propane and ethanol. As the temperature rises, matching entropic factors induce comparable rate constants for the three molecules.