Reactions between carbon and certain gases

Abstract

Our object in undertaking this investigation was to study the mechanism of the reactions which take place between carbon, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, and between carbon, hydrogen and methane. It was our intention to use samples of carbon from different sources produced under carefully controlled conditions, and to carry out the experiments in such a manner that the history of the solid phase, and its oxygen and hydrogen content at any moment was known. For reasons which will appear later the work could only proceed very slowly, and is of the nature of an exploration. However, as one of us is unable to continue the work, the further prosecution of which must be delayed, we have decided to publish an account of it. The investigation has resulted in the development of some new experimental methods, and in the discovery of some new phenomena. In the course of it, the need for the very accurate analysis of mixtures containing hydrogen, nitrogen, oxides of carbon, methane, and other hydrocarbons, led to the development of new analytical methods. We were obliged to devise a process for the continuous evacuation of apparatus at 10 -4 mm. of mercury, so that the gas removed from it could be collected without loss or contamination. From the commencement of any series of experiments, the distribution of the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen in the solid and gaseous phases was always known, so that information, which has hitherto been unavailable, but which is essential for the solution of the problems which we have studied, has been obtained.