The high pressure and high temperature kinetics of the 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene oxidation were investigated in the High Pressure Single Pulse Shock Tube at University of Illinois at Chicago. Experiments were performed at nominal reflected shock pressures of 20 and 50 atm, for three different equivalence ratios (phi = 0.51, 0.95 and 1.86) and for a temperature range of 1017-1645 K. A variety of stable species ranging from aliphatic hydrocarbons to single ring and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were sampled from the shock tube and analyzed using standard gas chromatographic techniques. A detailed chemical kinetic model was developed to simulate the fuel and oxygen decay and the stable intermediate species profiles as obtained from the high pressure oxidation experiments. The model shows satisfactory predictions for the formation and consumption of most of the major intermediates. (c) 2012 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.