Abstract
IT is well known that the chief product in the photochemical combination of hydrogen and oxygen is hydrogen peroxide. It is also known that hydrogen peroxide is a product of the thermal reaction, both in slow combustion at 550° C. and 1 atmosphere pressure (Pease1) and in explosive combustion (Poljakow2) at low pressure. The quantities produced have not been sufficient to indicate whether the hydrogen peroxide is a primary product of the reaction or only a concomitant, resulting, for example, from recombination of hydroxyl radicals at the walls. We are obtaining in explosive combustion at low pressure a condensate containing up to 30 percent hydrogen peroxide (grams per 100 c.c. of solution) in a continuous manner provided that the cooling is sufficiently rapid. The significance of the formation of so much peroxide is being further investigated.
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References
Pease, J. Amer. Chem. Soc, 52, 5100 (1930); 53, 3188 (1931).
Poljakow, Leefanow and Nossenko, Acta Phys. Chem., U.R.S.S., 441 (1939).
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EGERTON, A., MINKOFF, G. Hydrogen Peroxide Formed During the Combustion of Hydrogen and Oxygen. Nature 157, 266 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157266a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157266a0
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