Dealkylation of alkylbenzenes: a significant pathway in the toluene, o-, m-, p-xylene + OH reaction.

The OH-radical initiated oxidation of a series of monocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (benzene, toluene, o-, m-, and p-xylene) in the presence of oxygen and NO(x) was investigated in a flowtube coupled with a chemical ionization mass spectrometer (CIMS). OH-radical addition to the aromatic ring--the major reaction pathway--has previously been shown to have a particular sensitivity to experimental conditions. This is the first flowtube study that demonstrates the atmospheric relevance of product yields from the OH-addition channel on the millisecond time scale (35-75 ms); the phenol yield from benzene and cresol yields from toluene are found to be 51.0 +/- 4.3% and 17.7 +/- 2.1%, in excellent agreement with previous studies under close to atmospheric conditions. We further report unambiguous experimental evidence that dealkylation is a novel and significant pathway for toluene and o-, m-, and p-xylene oxidation. At 150 Torr of O2 partial pressure, toluene is found to dealkylate with a yield of 5.4 +/- 1.2% phenol; similarly, m-, o-, and p-xylene dealkylate with yields of 11.2 +/- 3.8%, 4.5 +/- 3.2%, and 4.3 +/- 3.1% cresol, respectively. A dealkylation mechanism via OH-addition in the ipso position is feasible (DeltaH = -9 kcal/mol for phenol formation from toluene) but does not lend itself easily to explain the significant isomer effect observed among xylenes; instead an alternative mechanism is presented that can explain this isomer effect and forms phenol and likely epoxide type products with identical m/z (indistinguishable in our CIMS analysis) via a carbene-type intermediate. Dealkylation adds to the atmospheric production of phenol- and likely epoxide-type products, with aldehydes as expected co-products, and helps improve the carbon balance in the initial stages of aromatic oxidation.