Clark, William Dempsey2021-03-312021-03-311958-06https://hdl.handle.net/1794/26135160 pagesThe work described herein was undertaken in order to accomplish two goals. The first was the construction of a mass spectrometer and associated equipment for use in continually monitoring the kinetics of a chemical reaction in the gas phase. The second was the use of this equipment in the actual study of the kinetics of a thermal decomposition. The first compound studied was azomethane (McCoy, 1955). The present thesis will cover the the work on azoethane together with a description of part of the instrumentation.enCreative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-USOrganic chemistryReactivity and mechanismsThesis / Dissertation