The stability of gaseous lithium hydroxide at high temperatures and its relation with the hydroxyl concentration of flame gases

Abstract

The techniques developed by Sugden and collaborators have been applied to the measurement of the ionization resulting from the addition of lithium compounds to hydrogen/air flames. Comparison of the results with those for the other alkali metals shows that lithium gives many too few electrons, and it is suggested, as a result of a comparison of the hydroxides and halides, that this is due to the removal of a large proportion of the lithium as gaseous hydroxide. A quantitative test of this hypothesis shows a very marked agreement with theoretical treatment. The consistency is such that the method appears to be very suitable for the estimation of the concentration of free hydroxyl radicals in flame gases, provided that a fair degree of thermal equilibrium obtains.