INHIBITION OF THE THERMAL REACTION BETWEEN HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN.

It was shown that the effect of hydrogen bromide on the second limit of the hydrogen-oxygen reaction in B2O3-coated reaction vessels can be explained in terms of the inhibition mechanism H HBr yields H2 Br Br H2 yields HBr H Br HO2 yields HBr O2 Br H2O2 yields HBr HO2. A preliminary analysis of the experimental results suggests that k18 is approx. 1 x 100000mm Hgsec and k20 is approx. 1 x 10000mm Hgsec at 500C. A computer study of the surface destruction of chain centres was also made to establish whether the removal processes are independent of each other when two types of species are destroyed at the surface. It was found that these processes are almost independent of each other except when the efficiencies with which the two species are destroyed are vastly different. The application of these calculations to the first limit of the hydrogen-oxygen reaction is discussed. Author