The photochemical decomposition of azoethane

The photolysis of azoethane has been investigated over the temperature range 26 to 178 °C. An analogous reaction mechanism to that for the photolysis of diethylketone (1) has been proposed to explain the results. For the activation energy of the reaction C2H5 + C2H5N2C2H5 a value of 7.5 kcal. /mole has been obtained, assuming that the combination reaction of two ethyl radicals has an activation energy of zero. The ratio of disproportionation to recombination of ethyl radicals is 0.13 ± 0.02.