The influence of foreign gases on the lower critical oxidation pressure of carbon disulphide

Abstract

The study of gaseous reactions has recently acquired additional interest, since it has been found that a considerable number of reactions can be explained on the basis of a chain hypothesis. In 1923 Christiansen and Kramers studied the kinetics of a unimolecular reaction and found that explosion is possible if the total change of energy resulting from the reaction is greater than the energy of activation. Since that time the mechanism of chain reactions has been carefully investigated and some of the conditions for the continued propagation of the reaction have been ascertained. Thus, if we have two gases mixed together without any chemical change taking place, a reaction may commence when even a very small quantity of a third molecule is added, or if one of the original molecules receives energy of activation (from whatever cause). Designating the original molecules for simplicity by A and B and the new molecule by C, which we will suppose reacts with A, giving a fourth molecule D (and possibly other molecules also), we have A + C → D.