The cool flame of methyl ethyl ketone

Abstract

The regions of temperature and composition for which slow reaction, explosion, single and multiple cool flames respectively occur in the system gaseous butanone/oxygen have been determined. Factors affecting the frequency of cool flames have also been studied. The concentration of peroxides is shown to increase rapidly before the cool flame passes and to suffer a catastrophic decline as it does so. Aldehyde concentration does not follow a parallel course. The results are related to the general theory of hydrocarbon combustion, and the various phenomena are interpreted in terms of the view that the cool flame represents not the combustion of the primary reactants, but the explosive decomposition of small quantities of accumulated intermediate peroxide.