Abstract
THE recent discussion held by the Faraday Society on modern developments in the theories of catalytic chemistry gave rise to an important debate concerning what has been termed the radiation theory of chemical action. It is now almost generally accepted, both by the protagonists and by some of the opponents of this theory, that molecules of the same species in a reacting system may differ from one another in what is termed chemical “activity.” Thus in a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen a certain fraction, both of the hydrogen and of the oxygen molecules, are “active.” Collision between active molecules of the two species results in chemical combination; collision between inactive molecules produces no chemical change.
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RIDEAL, E. Chemical Reactivity and the Quantum Theory. Nature 108, 259–260 (1921). https://doi.org/10.1038/108259a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/108259a0