KINETICS OF A 2ND-ORDER REACTION INVOLVING 2 INTERMEDIATE 2ND-ORDER REACTIONS

We have studied the kinetics of a reaction in which starting materials A and B react to form the products C and D directly, as well as by way of two additional intermediate reactions. In the first intermediate reaction, A and C react to form D and E, and in the second intermediate reaction, B and E react to form 2C. There are three conservation laws, which effectively reduce the number of variables to two, resulting in nonlinear coupled first order differential equations for [A](t) and [B](t). These equations are readily solved by standard numerical procedures, for various values of the relative reaction rates and starting concentrations. Our results are used to fit experimental data for the case in which A and B are 1-acetyl-4-(1-ethoxycarbonyl-1-cyano)methylene-1,4-dihydroquinoline and water, for which the first and third reverse reactions can be neglected.