Abstract
IT is known that the most reactive mixture of methane and oxygen is 2CH4 + O2, the most easily detonated CH4 + O2 and the most inflammable CH4 + 2O2. Methane is not unique in this respect because, as Coward and Payman1 have pointed out, the most reactive mixtures of each of the simple paraffin hydrocarbons with oxygen are those containing hydrocarbon and oxygen in the molecular proportion 2 : 1; yet none of these mixtures can propagate flame at normal temperature and pressure. An interpretation of these curious facts may be suggested on the following lines.
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References
Coward, H. F., and Payman, W., Chem. Rev., 21, 539 (1937).
Bone, W. A., and Townend, D. T. A., “Flame and Combustion in Gases” (Longman, 1927).
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JONES, E. Combustion of Methane. Nature 178, 1112 (1956). https://doi.org/10.1038/1781112a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1781112a0
