How many pounds of organic chemicals do we produce yearly in the U.S.? The answer is 250 billion pounds per year-more than 1000 pounds for every person in the U.S. It is hard for even a chemist to visualize how each of us in this country uses a half-ton of chemicals yearly. We'd certainly be overwhelmed if someone dumped our share on our front lawn.In fact, of course, those chemicals do not appear on our front lawn except perhaps as fertilizer and weed killers. But they do appear in the clothes we wear, the homes we live in, the furnishings in those homes, the offices and plants we work in, the food we eat, our automobiles and airplanes, the medical equipment that is used to make us well, the sports equipment that gives us recreational pleasure, and, of course, in the vehicles that go to the moon and that monitor the planets. In other words, the more than 1000 pounds of organic chemicals produced for each of us yearly provides the basis for modern technology.

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When 50-50 mixtures of CHsCHO-CaDg or CD3CDO-C2H6 are decomposed, the amount of isotopic mixing as measured by the CH3D/CH4 or CD3H/CD4 ratios is proportional to the fraction of aldehyde decomposed. When different amounts of NO are added to the aldehyde-ethane mixtures the ratios of CH3D/CH4 or CD3H/CD4 are (for constant fractional decomposition of the aldehyde) either independent of the concentration of NO or increase somewhat as the NO concentration increases. When 50-50 mixtures of CDsCDO-CHgCHz^CHa and CD3CDO-C2He are decomposed, the CD3H/CD4 ratio for a given fractional decomposition of aldehyde is 1.8:1 respectively for the two reactions. Our results indicate (1) that the thermal decomposition of CHsCHO and CD3CDO are similar, (2) that both are chain reactions unaccompanied by any significant amount of direct separation into product molecules and (3) that the thermal decomposition of a substrate in presence of an indicator (in which either the substrate or indicator is fully deuterated) provides a general method for studying elementary reactions.1.

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