Diatomic Carbon - Reactions

Reactions

Diatomic carbon will react with acetone and acetylaldehyde to produce acetylene by two different pathways.

  • Triplet C2 molecules will react through an intermolecular pathway, which is shown to exhibit radical character. The intermediate for this pathway is the ethylene radical. Its abstraction is correlated with bond energies.
  • Singlet C2 molecules will react through an intramolecular, nonradical pathway in which two hydrogen atoms will be taken away from one molecule. The intermediate for this pathway is singlet vinylidene. The singlet reaction can happen through a 1,1-diabstraction or a 1,2-diabstraction. This reaction is insensitive to isotope substitution. The different abstractions are possibly due to the spatial orientations of the collisions rather than the bond energies.
  • Singlet C2 will also react with alkenes. Acetylene is a major product; however, it appears C2 will insert into carbon-hydrogen bonds.
  • C2 is 2.5 times more likely to insert into a methyl group as into methylene groups.

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