Abstract
WHEN dry nitric anhydride is vaporised in a stream of ozonised oxygen, and then passed through a glass tube heated by a small flame, the colourless gas becomes brown, through the formation of nitrogen dioxide, a short distance before the flame is reached. A narrow zone of a dark grey-blue colour is, however, seen hovering at the boundary, and this is preceded by a zone of clear blue. In a long tube, the blue flame thus formed strikes back from time to time, at the rate of about 10 cm. per second, to the point at which the gas enters the tube, which is then filled from end to end with brown nitrogen dioxide. When the concentration of nitrogen pentoxide is low, the grey boundary between the colourless incoming gas and its pale brown decomposition products remains stationary and does not strike back.
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LOWRY, T., LEMON, J. A Blue Flame in the System N2O5/O3. Nature 135, 433 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135433c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135433c0
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