The Effect of a Magnetic Field on the Catalyzed Nondissociative Para hydrogen Conversion Rate

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter describes all available results on the extrinsic field magnetocatalytic effect discovered several years ago. It is well known that the ortho-parahydrogen conversion may proceed by either of two mechanisms. One, the nondissociative, involves a nuclear spin singlet-triplet transition caused by interaction with magnetic sites present in the catalyst. The other, the dissociative mechanism, involves separation and recombination of the atoms. No effect of a magnetic field on the dissociative conversion has ever been confirmed. All of the remarks have reference to the nondissociative process. By magnetocatalytic effect is meant a change of a catalyzed reaction rate caused by a field produced externally or internally. An extrinsic field is one coming from the outside. The experimental results are classified according to the catalyst, or class of catalyst. There appear to be no results on a possible field effect for the homogeneous nondissociative conversion.