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The experimental investigations performed in the 1960s on the o-benzyne + benzene reaction as well as the more recent studies on reactions involving π-electrons highlight the importance of π-bonding for different combustion processes related to PAH's and soot formation. In the present investigation radical/π-bond addition reactions between single-ring aromatic compounds have been proposed and computationally investigated as possible pathways for the formation of two-ring fused compounds, such as naphthalene, which serve as precursors to soot formation. The computationally generated optimized structures for the stationary points were obtained with uB3LYP/6-311+G(d,p) calculations, while the energies of the optimized complexes were refined using the uCCSD(T) method and the cc-pVDZ basis set. The computations have addressed the relevance of a number of radical/π-bond addition reactions including the singlet benzene + o-benzyne reaction, which leads to formation of naphthalene and acetylene through fragmentation of the benzobicyclo[2,2,2]octatriene intermediate. For this reaction, the high-pressure limit rate constants for the individual elementary reactions involved in the overall process were evaluated using transition state theory analysis. Other radical/π-bond addition reactions studied were between benzene and triplet o-benzyne, between benzene and phenyl radical, and between phenyl radicals, for all of which potential energy surfaces were produced. On the basis of the results of these reaction studies, it was found necessary to propose and subsequently confirm additional, alternative pathways for the formation of the types of PAH compounds found in combustion systems. The potential energy surface for one reaction in particular, the phenyl + phenyl addition, is shown to contain a low-energy channel leading to formation of naphthalene that is energetically comparable to the other examined conventional pathways leading to formation of biphenyl compounds. This channel is the first evidence of a reaction which involves an aromatic radical adding to the nonradical π-bond site of another aromatic radical which leads directly to a fused ring structure.

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An experimental investigation of phenyl radical pyrolysis and the phenyl radical + acetylene reaction has been performed to clarify the role of different reaction mechanisms involved in the formation and growth of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) serving as precursors for soot formation. Experiments were conducted using GC/GC-MS diagnostics coupled to the high-pressure single-pulse shock tube present at the University of Illinois at Chicago. For the first time, comprehensive speciation of the major stable products, including small hydrocarbons and large PAH intermediates, was obtained over a wide range of pressures (25-60 atm) and temperatures (900-1800 K) which encompass the typical conditions in modern combustion devices. The experimental results were used to validate a comprehensive chemical kinetic model which provides relevant information on the chemistry associated with the formation of PAH compounds. In particular, the modeling results indicate that the o-benzyne chemistry is a key factor in the formation of multi-ring intermediates in phenyl radical pyrolysis. On the other hand, the PAHs from the phenyl + acetylene reaction are formed mainly through recombination between single-ring aromatics and through the hydrogen abstraction/acetylene addition mechanism. Polymerization is the common dominant process at high temperature conditions.

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