Critical phenomena in a system with two competing exothermic and endothermic reactions. Part I. Thermal explosion

Abstract

This article examines the laws of thermal explosion for chemical reactions in which heat is absorbed and liberated simultaneously. The thermal equilibration time is much less than the characteristic times of the chemical reactions if the heats of reaction and activation energies are large. It is determined that the reaction rates vary during the establishment of thermal equilibrium, which alters the temperature conditions, but in that case the temperature change is quasistationary (e.g., at each instant the rate of heat production in the exothermic reaction is equal to the overall rate of heat absorption). A simple model case is considered which demonstrates the major states and transformation regions in the case of autocatalytic reactions, in which a wide range of relationships exist for the kinetics of the exothermic and endothermic reactions.