Mechanism of the Hydrogen Chlorine Combination

Abstract

THE object of the present note is to describe some work in progress here on an attempt to test directly the Nernst theory (Zeit. Electrochem., 24, 335, 1918) for the very wide deviation of the hydrogen chlorine combination from the Einstein photochemical equivalence law. Nernst postulated that the primary action of the light was to split up the chlorine into atoms, and that these were able to react with hydrogen molecules according to the equation, and that the atomic hydrogen formed again reacted with chlorine, and that this cycle was repeated over and over. Hence I quantum of light energy was able to cause a very great amount of combination. He showed that all these reactions proceeded with a free energy decrease and hence were possible reactions.