The atmospheric reactivity of .alpha.-methyltetrahydrofuran

Biomass-derived {alpha}-methyltetrahydrofuran (MTHF) has been proposed as an automotive fuel additive. Since MTHF is a volatile organic compound, the environmental impact of evaporation to the atmosphere needs to be considered. The major loss process of MTHF in the atmosphere is expected to occur via reaction with hydroxyl radical; hence we have conducted a study of the kinetics of the reaction OH + MTHF {yields} products using both absolute (flash photolysis resonance fluorescence) and relative rate techniques. The absolute rate experiments were performed over the temperature range 240-400 K at total pressures of 35 Torr (4.7 kPa) argon; the relative rate experiments were conducted at 295 K in 740 Torr (99 kPa) synthetic air. The results from both techniques were in good agreement and yield k{sub 1} = (2.52 {plus minus} 0.74) {times} 10{sup {minus}12} exp-((650 {plus minus} 80)/T) cm{sup 3} molecule{sup {minus}1} s{sup {minus}1}, with k{sub 1} (298 K) = 2.2 {times} 10{sup {minus}11} cm{sup 3} molecule{sup {minus}1}. The implications of these results for the atmospheric chemistry of MTHF are discussed.