Reactions of saturated hydrocarbons in the presence of deuterium on evaporated iron films

The reactions of n-butane, propane, ethane, and methane have been studied in the presence of deuterium on evaporated films of iron at temperatures such that exchange and, except in the case of methane, hydrogenolysis could be observed. Results indicated that the hydrocarbons interacted strongly with the catalyst surface such that exchanged products tended to be perdeuterioalkanes and the predominant product of hydrogenolysis was perdeuteriomethane. These observations suggest that the desorption of single carbon entities as methane may be the rate-determining step in n-butane and propane hydrogenolysis