A COMPARISON OF REACTION-KINETICS OBSERVED UNDER MICROWAVE IRRADIATION AND CONVENTIONAL HEATING

Kinetic studies were made of two reactions under microwave heating and under conventional heating. The reactions were the acid-catalyzed isomerization of carvone to carvacrol and the Diels-Alder reaction between anthracene and diethyl maleate. It was found that the rates of these reactions were the same, within experimental error, under either mode of heating at the same temperature. The activation parameters for the isomerization were measured as E(double-dagger) = 89 +/- 3 kJ/mol, In A = 21.5 +/- 0.8 (oil bath); and E(double-dagger) = 83 +/- 5 kJ/mol, In A = 19.7 +/- 1.6 (microwave). The activation parameters for the Diels-Alder reaction were E(double-dagger) = 94 +/- 10 kJ/mol, In A = 15.6 +/- 2.3 (oil bath); and E* = 88 +/- 8 kJ/mol, In A = 13.9 +/- 2.0 (microwave).