In this brief communication, we present new experimental species profile measurements for the low and intermediate temperature oxidation of ethanol under knock-prone conditions. These experiments show that ethanol exhibits no global low temperature reactivity at these conditions, although we note the heterogeneous decomposition of ethanol to ethylene and water. Similar behavior is reported for an E85 blend in n-heptane. Kinetic modeling results are presented to complement these experiments and elucidate the interaction of ethanol and primary reference fuels undergoing cooxidation. (C) 2009 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier In. All rights reserved.