For example, the combination of silver with certain alkali metal salts, such as CsCl, lowers the desorption energy of long chain olefins (e.g. CH2=CH-CH3) and by doing so permits removal of a hydrogen atom by oxidation without reducing the entire compound to CO2 and H2O. The catalytic conversion of butadiene and other hydrocarbons into their oxides by this technique is being used by the Eastman Ch