Ionic collision processes in simple gas mixtures containing hydrogen

Bimolecular reactions that occur in weakly ionized mixtures of [H₂+N₂], [H₂+CO], [H₂+N₂O], and [H₂+CO₂] have been studied while the ions are contained in the space charge trap generated by the passage of a low‐energy electron beam through the ion source of a mass spectrometer. The results obtained for [H₂+N₂] are generally in agreement with those from earlier studies with the qualification that a charge transfer reaction of low probability has now been observed for collisions between ${\mathrm{N}}_2^{+}$ and H₂. For the other three mixtures disagreement exists between these and earlier measurements. The rate coefficient for the transfer of a proton from ${\mathrm{H}}_3^{+}$ to N₂, CO, N₂O, or CO₂ has been found to depend strongly upon the ratio of H₂ to the other molecular constituent of the mixture. This observation is consistent with the view that the reaction rate coefficient for ${\mathrm{H}}_3^{+}$ is determined by the internal energy of this ion.