I. Diethylperoxide

Abstract

Organic peroxides are formed during the combustion of hydrocarbons (Callendar 1927; Egerton 1927; Mondain Monval and Quanquin 1929), and they have been shown to be very powerful "proknock" substances (Egerton, Smith and Ubbelohde 1935). The work of Townend (1933-8) has shown that the lower ignition region of the hydrocarbons is that which characterizes their "knock" behaviour. In this region there appear to be substances formed which are only stable within a certain range of temperature and it is those substances which seem to determine the ignition and knock behaviour (Egerton 1928; Neumann and Aivazov 1935). It is quite likely that the substances are peroxides, but as it is not easy to decide from estimation of the products of combustion what peroxides are formed (Pease 1934, 1935; Harris and Egerton 1937) and which are important in the processes which eventually lead to ignition or give rise to knock, it is necessary to obtain information from several directions in order to find out what exactly is happening. Experiments are therefore being undertaken to find out the behaviour of various organic peroxides when heated and when oxidized, and the present communication deals with diethylperoxide. It is hardly likely that this plays a prominent part in the combustion of a hydrocarbon and it would be easy to detect if it was formed in any quantity, but being a strong proknock, and being stable and fairly easily prepared in a pure state, it forms a convenient peroxide to study first.