Luminescent Decomposition of Nitrous Oxide

Abstract

THE thermal dissociation of nitrous oxide has received considerable attention in the past in connexion with the collision theory of unimolecular and bimolecular reactions¹, and it is known that oxygen atoms can be produced as a result of the primary dissociation N₂O = N₂ + O. This dissociation was considered to be the chain-initiating process in the H₂—N₂O reaction by Melville², and in the CO—N₂O reaction by Bawn₃. In view of the production of atomic oxygen in the decomposition of nitrous oxide, some work has been carried out on the N²O—SO₂ system in order to obtain some basic information on the association reaction SO₂ + O = SO₃, a process believed to be of some importance in relation to the oxidation of sulphur dioxide in flames⁴. This work will be reported in detail elsewhere ; but it is the purpose of this note to describe some observations on the nature of the luminescence accompanying the decomposition of nitrous oxide at temperatures of the order of 900° C., and the effect of various additions on this. Zeldovitsch and Jakovlev⁵ have studied briefly the explosive decomposition of nitrous oxide at high temperatures, and the appearance of yellow-green flashes in the combustion of carbon in nitrous oxide at 600–800° C. has been recorded by Shaw⁶ and Arthur⁷.