The homogeneous reaction between hydrogen and oxygen

Abstract

When a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen is heated in a silica vessel at a temperature below about 520° C., the slow reaction which occurs takes place almost entirely on the walls of the vessel, is not very much influenced by pressure, and has a small temperature coefficient. In the next 50° above this, a reaction in the gas phase comes into prominence, the rate of which depends on the concentration of hydrogen and oxygen in such a way as to indicate a reaction of very “high order.” The temperature coefficient is high and increases both with temperature and pressure, and the gas-reaction, unlike the surface reaction, is “autocatalysed” by steam. The gas reaction is retarded by an increase in the surface exposed to the gas. The retardation must be due either to the destruction by a surface decomposition of something which catalyses the principal reaction, or to the interruption of reaction chains, in a manner which has already been discussed. The homogeneous reaction between hydrogen and oxygen is interesting if only because it is one of the most fundamental reactions from the purely chemical point of view, but it appears also to be specially worthy of further investigation because it is kinetically of so remarkable a nature.