Open AccessThe ionisation produced by hot platinum in different gases
Publication year - 1906
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london. series a, containing papers of a mathematical and physical character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9150
pISSN - 0950-1207
DOI - 10.1098/rspa.1906.0070
Subject(s) - ionization , ion , atomic physics , platinum , metal , chemistry , adsorption , kinetic energy , action (physics) , physics , organic chemistry , classical mechanics , catalysis , quantum mechanics
The primary object of this investigation has been to try to discover the mechanism of the action by which the positive ions set free by hot bodies originate. It deals principally with measurements of thesteady positive ionisation produced by hot platinum in various gases under different conditions. In 1901 the writer showed that the negative ionisation from hot metals could be satisfactorily explained by supposing that it was caused by the freely moving corpuscles inside the metal escaping from the surface when their kinetic energy exceeded a certain value. In the present paper reasons are assigned for believing that a view of this kind will not account for the origin of the positive ions, which seem to be liberated by an action in which the atoms of the gas play a direct part. In the cases of steady ionisation here investigated it seems probable that it is not so much the external gas as that adsorbed by the metal which is effective.