MODEL FOR EXPLOSIONS DURING CARBON-MONOXIDE OXIDATION

During the oxidation of carbon monoxide containing a trace of water, ten well‐known atomic and molecular species can be identified as of potential significance. All conceivable reactions of these species in their ground electronic states were considered, and rate constants for all those that are of potential importance are either known or can be estimated with considerable confidence. For compositions and temperatures of experimental interest an isothermal system goes to a single steady state that is stable to perturbation and will neither explode nor oscillate. These steady‐state computations also predict that as the temperature is raised above about 1000 K most of the water is converted to H, OH, and HO2 radicals. Under such conditions, exothermic reactions would be so rapid that strong thermal gradients would develop in any real system of plausible dimensions. A simple model based on these calculations predicts explosion limits consistent with those observed experimentally. Simultaneous behavior in time and in space must be calculated in detail before it is clear whether or not this model based on ground electronic states can model the oscillations that are sometimes observed in this system. Copyright © 1979 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.