Abstract
The oxidation of gaseous formaldehyde has been studied by Askey1, Fort and Hinshelwood2, Bone and Gardner3, Spence4, and Snowden and Style5. Spence4 was the first to investigate the reaction comprehensively and to propose a mechanism. Snowden and Style5 also proposed a somewhat similar but incomplete mechanism. Neither is able to account for a further important observation that has now emerged—first mentioned by Style and Summers6 and now confirmed by our results—that, concurrently with the oxidation of the formaldehyde, there is a sensitized decomposition to carbon monoxide and hydrogen, linked with it. This decomposition does not take place in the absence of oxygen, and at very low partial pressures of oxygen assumes a relatively predominant role.
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References
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AXFORD, D., NORRISH, R. Mechanism of the Oxidation of Gaseous Formaldehyde. Nature 160, 537–538 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/160537b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/160537b0
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