4 ms·
The methyl radicals will also react directly with the chlorine. If anyone else is reading along, please do not attempt to use chlorine gas to "destroy" methane
by nyeah 5mo ago
The methyl radicals will also react directly with the chlorine.
If anyone else is reading along, please do not attempt to use chlorine gas to "destroy" methane in air that anybody's going to be breathing. That would be very dangerous.
- pfdietz 5mo agoI already addressed that point. The chlorine concentration is quite low, so the reactive methyl radicals will react with oxygen first. This is unlike the industrial synthesis of chlorinated derivatives of methane, where methane and chlorine are present at high concentration and oxygen is excluded.
- nyeah 5mo agoI see what you're saying about dilution. Each methyl radical will run into an O2 much more often than a Cl2. But that doesn't mean the latter doesn't happen at all. There are rate equations and (so far as I can see) you get a long menu of reaction products, at decreasing concentrations. Even ignoring toxic organics and organochlorides ... the proposal to release chlorine gas seems to demand very careful thought. Similar programs were tried during World War I, with negative effects on human subjects. Not loving the HCl either, though I've read your comments on that.