Further Study of the Reaction of Hot Hydrogen with Methane

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Abstract
The reaction of hot hydrogen atoms with methane (hot hydrogen in the form of recoil tritium produced by nuclear reaction) has been studied in further detail. Earlier work had been incomplete because in the presence of moderator, small amounts of HT, the abstraction product, were produced by what were recognized as spurious processes. An exhaustive investigation of possible limitations of the recoil method indicated that if helium is used as a moderator, not all the recoil tritium reaches chemical energies as neutral ground‐state atoms. This finding is in accordance with the adiabatic principle. The use of neon or argon as moderators eliminated this difficulty and permitted estimation of the true yield of HT and the total reactivity integral for the reaction. The consequent complete analysis of the system results in several new significant findings: (1) Values of the reactivity integral IHT measured using a helium moderator are probably too high and require downward revision (other products are apparently not subject to this effect); (2) The most stringent test of the kinetic theory of hot reactions to date discloses no deviation despite the approximate nature of the assumptions underlying this theory; (3) The relative energy loss on collision of hot T with Ne, Ar, and He seems to accord with the soft‐sphere predictions of Estrup; (4) Contrary to earlier belief, the abstraction product HT is formed at higher average energies than the displacement product CH3T; (5) The pressure dependence of the double displacement product CH2T·, suggests a generalization regarding the mechanisms by which such products are formed.

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