title: An empirical study of the effect of the variables in a flash vacuum pyrolysis (FVP) experiment.
abstract: The effect of the variation of the experimental parameters on the conversion of precursor to products in a typical flash vacuum pyrolysis (FVP) experiment was investigated empirically. Temperature-conversion plots can be used to optimise FVP conditions and their mechanistic significance is exemplified. At a given temperature, the conversion can be increased by an increase in the background pressure, or by packing a section of the furnace tube with inert material (particularly when placed at the trap end of the furnace tube) or by employing a catalyst. Despite the prevailing view that only intramolecular reactions take place by FVP, it has been shown by a 'dual-FVP' cross-over experiment that the dimerisation of benzyl radicals occurs in the gas-phase, before the cold trap, under standard conditions. However, reduction in through-put rate, increase in furnace temperature and reduction in background pressure all reduce the amount of gas-phase coupling.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, UK EH9 3JJ.
authors.forename: Emma F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Duffy
authors.forename: Jonathan S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Foot
authors.forename: Hamish
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: McNab
authors.forename: Andrew A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Milligan