Relative Efficiencies of Quenching of Mercury Resonance Radiation and Their Temperature Independence. Mechanism of Mercury Photosensitized Decomposition of Saturated Hydrocarbons

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Abstract
Relative over‐all efficiencies of quenching of mercury resonance radiation have been determined for N2O, n‐C4H10, C2H6, and C2H4 by studying the binary mixtures of each of the hydrocarbons with nitrous oxide at 23° and 120°C. For N2O and n‐C4H10 the relative efficiency of quenching to the ground state as well as the fractions of quenching to the ground and to the metastable 6(3P0) state of mercury for each of the two compounds have also been determined. Temperature independence of the primary quenching processes has been demonstrated. A proposed mechanism of quenching by saturated hydrocarbons, based on additional experimental information obtained with n‐butane alone and its mixtures with nitrous oxide, interprets fully the experimental facts and in particular accounts for the repeatedly observed low quantum yields of hydrogen formation.