Open AccessThe slow combustion of acetylene
Author(s) -
Oho .o
Publication year - 1937
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london. series a, mathematical and physical sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9169
pISSN - 0080-4630
DOI - 10.1098/rspa.1937.0198
Subject(s) - combustion , spontaneous combustion , chemistry , formaldehyde , acetylene , thermal decomposition , decomposition , ignition system , explosive material , chemical engineering , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , physics , engineering
In 1905 one of us in conjunction with Andrew published the results of extensive experiments upon the combustion of acetylene which showed that when a 2C2 H2 + O2 or C2 H2 + O2 mixture was sealed up in borosilicate glass bulbs at atmospheric pressure and afterwards heated, reaction set in at 250°, or even at a somewhat lower temperature, and proceeded rapidly at 300°. Explosive combustion set in at about 350°, the ignition point being raised either by reducing the initial pressure or by addition of oxygen to the equimolecular mixture. With regard to the slow combustion, it was shown that carbonic oxide and formaldehyde arise simultaneously at an early stage of the process, probably as the result of the thermal decomposition of an unstable C2 H2 O2 which might possibly be C. OH ... C. OH, although only a form of polyglycolide (C2 H2 O2 )x was actually isolated. The formation of formaldehyde preceded that of steam, and the whole process, it was thought, might be represented by the scheme: