Evidence for production of the hydroxycarbonyl radical in the decomposition of formic acid on platinum

D. E. Tevault*, Ming-Chang Lin, M. E. Umstead, R. R. Smardzewski

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

Formic acid molecules highly diluted in argon were passed through a clean platinum screen at 420–730 K and condensed onto an 8‐K CsI window. The well‐known decomposition products, CO2, CO, and H2O, were observed in the infrared spectra of the resulting matrices. In addition, new absorptions which are attributed to the OCOH free radical were also observed. Experiments with partially deuterated formic acids confirmed that the carbon‐hydrogen bond of the formic acid was lost in the formation of the new intermediate species. The activation energy for CO2 production, Ea = 3.5 ± 0.2 kcal/mol, was determined by monitoring its appearance rate at several different catalyst temperatures.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)445-449
Number of pages5
JournalInternational Journal of Chemical Kinetics
Volume11
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 1979

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