The formation of methyl alcohol and formaldehyde in the slow combustion of methane at high pressures

Abstract

Abstract The isolation and identification of the primary oxidation product of hydrocarbon are so important from the point of view of the theory of hydrocarbon combustion that chemists have spared no effort to overcome the difficulties involved, but so far with incomplete success. The mechanism of the oxidation process was elucidated many years ago by the researches of Professor W. A. Bone and his collaborators as one essentially of hydroxylation, in the case of methane as involving the following stages:—