Shock waves in chemical kinetics

Citation

Britton, John D. (1955) Shock waves in chemical kinetics. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-11262003-143942

Abstract

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The rates of dissociation of I[subscript 2] in N[subscript 2] and CO[subscript 2], and Br[subscript 2] in A were measured at temperatures around 1300[degrees]K by heating room temperature mixtures by means of shock waves and observing the subsequent reactions. The rates of recombination of both I[subscript 2] and Br[subscript 2] were found to decrease with increasing temperature. The results, combined with room temperature measurements seemed to be best expressed in the form K[subscript R] = A exp([...]/RT). Attempts to measure the efficiency of I[subscript 2] or Br[subscript 2] molecules as third bodies for the recombination gave only rather wide limits to the possible values.

The experiments also showed that CO[subscript 2] is vibrationally relaxed at high temperatures in a time short compared to the reaction time of 20-200 microseconds. It was not possible to decide whether or not N[subscript 2] is vibrationally relaxed at this temperature in this short time.

Extinction coefficients of I[subscript 2] and Br[subscript 2] were measured as a function of the temperature. They appeared to be dependent on the inert gas.

Thesis Files