Active Nitrogen

Abstract

IN some recent experiments it has been possible to show that metastable molecules of nitrogen are present in active nitrogen. A preliminary report of these experiments has been made by one of us (J. K.) before the April meeting of the American Physical Society. The absence of a spectroscopic transition from the first or A electronic level of the molecule to the normal level has been reported by Miss Sponer, who also suggested that this level may be a metastable one. Also the transition from the normal level of the molecule to the A level has not been observed in absorption. The long life of active nitrogen cannot, however, be explained on the hypothesis that active nitrogen is a metastable molecule. Its long life and its behaviour in the presence of catalysts suggests with certainty that active nitrogen is atomic and that metastable molecules are formed under the influence of the recombination of nitrogen atoms to molecules.