The Dissociation of Carbon Dioxide at High Temperatures

Abstract

WHEN mixtures of carbon monoxide and air in varying proportions are exploded in a closed vessel under similar initial conditions of pressure, temperature, and moisture content, experiments show that the greatest explosion pressure occurs when the proportion of carbon monoxide to oxygen in the mixtures is greater than 2. Messrs. Fenning and Tizard, in their paper on the dissociation of carbon dioxide at high temperatures in a recent number of the Proc. Roy. Soc., assume that chemical equilibrium is established by the time the maximum pressure is reached in explosions and attribute this phenomenon entirely to temperature dissociation of carbon dioxide. They then proceed to make estimates of the dissociation of carbon dioxide as a function of temperature from explosion experiments in which the “airs” used were enriched with oxygen so as to develop higher temperatures.