REACTIONS IN DISSOCIATED PEROXIDE VAPOR

Abstract

The products of the electrical discharge through hydrogen peroxide vapor were hydrogen peroxide, water, oxygen, and hydrogen, in amounts which depended upon the arrangement and temperature of the trap, reaction time, and surface to volume ratio of the reaction vessel. Water, hydrogen, and oxygen resulted from the gas phase reactions of the dissociated hydrogen peroxide, with hydrogen peroxide produced only in a trap cooled below −120 °C. Products trapped below −150 °C evolved oxygen on warming to room temperature. The decomposition products of the electrical discharge through hydrogen peroxide correspond closely with products obtainable both from a similar discharge through water vapor and from the interaction of hydrogen atoms with oxygen molecules in a cold trap. A mechanism which accounts for their correspondence is included. Water was the only product when molecular hydrogen peroxide was caused to react with hydrogen atoms, dissociated hydrogen peroxide vapor, or dissociated water vapor in the presence or absence of molecular hydrogen. A chain mechanism is postulated for these reactions.