On the possibility of a thermal explosion initiated by a heterogeneous reaction between H2 and O2

E. N. Aleksandrov, N. M. Kuznetsov, and S. N. Kozlov reply the critical review against their paper titled 'On the Possibility of a Thermal Explosion Initiated by a Heterogeneous Reaction between H 2 and O 2'. The authors of the paper develop Semenov's concept, which implies that usually the primary factor acting at the third limit is heat. The low rate of chain initiation on the reactor wall in the reactor with lubrication vapors, apparently, shows that the heterogeneous catalyst is poisoned by the lubrication or by the products of its decomposition. It was only in the experiments performed in a lubricated reactor, whose surface was carefully cleaned for two months by means of surface burning-off with a rarefied flame of the oxyhydrogen gas, that it became possible to obtain the value. They elucidated the question of reliability of criterion and the nature of the explosion at the third limit in a vessel rinsed by KCl.