Sonolysis of tert-butyl alcohol in aqueous solution

A product study of the sonolysis of the volatile substrate t-butanol in aqueous solution indicates that substrate decomposition is practically completely determined, even at concentrations as low as millimolar, by oxidative pyrolysis going on in the gas phase within the collapsing cavitational bubble. OH-Radical-induced reactions in solution are insignificant since the volatility of this substrate, its gas-phase concentration within the bubble enhanced by a certain degree of hydrophobicity, causes OH radicals generated thermolytically from water vapour to be intercepted before they can reach the aqueous phase. The nature of the products, as well as the t-butanol-concentration dependence of the product yields, can be qualitatively explained on the basis of the t-butanol-pyrolysis mechanism. Kinetic considerations involving the relative yields of the pyrolysis products ethane, ethylene and acetylene lead to an estimate of a value of 3600 K for the average pyrolysis temperature at a t-butanol bulk concentration of 10–3 molar.