Thermal Decomposition of 2‑Cyclopentenone

The thermal decomposition of 2-cyclopentenone, a cyclic oxygenated hydrocarbon that occurs in the pyrolysis of biomass, has been studied in a combined experimental and theoretical approach. Gas-phase pyrolysis was performed at temperatures ranging from 1000 to 1400 K in a pulsed, microtubular reactor. Products were identified by FTIR spectroscopy following their isolation in a low-temperature argon matrix. The following products were identified: carbon monoxide, ketene, propenylketene, vinylacetylene, ethylene, propene, acrolein, acetylene, propyne, and propargyl radical. Computational results identify three different decomposition channels involving a H atom migration, and producing prop-2-enylketene (Pathway 1), prop-1-enylketene (Pathway 2), and a second conformation of prop-2-enylketene (Pathway 3). A fourth decomposition pathway involves simultaneous rupture of two C–C bonds forming a high energy cyclopropenone intermediate that further reacts to form ethylene, acetylene, and carbon monoxide. Finally, a fifth pathway to the formation of acrolein and acetylene was identified that proceeds via a multistep mechanism, and an interconversion from 2-cyclopentenone to 3-cyclopentenone was identified computationally, but not observed experimentally.