Abstract
KNOWLEDGE of the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide vapour is of considerable importance to the developing understanding of unimolecular reactions and also of the oxidation of many gaseous fuels. McLane1 and Giguère and Liu2 claimed the overall homogeneous decomposition to be first-order. Satterfield and Stein3 claimed that the decomposition occurred by a chain reaction the overall order of which was 1.5. We have carried out an extensive investigation of the decomposition and shown that it is non-chain and second-order (that is, the rate can be expressed as k[H2O2] [M.) up to pressures of at least 1 atmosphere of nitrogen). We have further shown that the first step in the decomposition must be the second-order reaction:
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References
McLane, C. K., J. Chem. Phys., 17, 379 (1949).
Giguère, P. A., and Liu, I. D., Can. J. Chem., 35, 283 (1957).
Satterfield, C. N., and Stein, T. W., J. Phys. Chem., 61, 537 (1957).
Hoare, D. E., and Walsh, A. D., Chem. Soc. Special Publications, No. 9, 17 (1958).
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HOARE, D., PROTHEROE, J. & WALSH, A. Thermal Decomposition of Hydrogen Peroxide Vapour. Nature 182, 654 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/182654a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/182654a0
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