Bond dissociation energies of gaseous alkali metal hydroxides

Abstract

Atomic absorption spectroscopy has been used to measure the concentrations of each of the alkali metals as a function of hydrogen atom concentration in hydrogen-rich, hydrogen + oxygen + nitrogen flames. The flame temperatures were chosen so that ionization was negligible. From the measurements, values for the bond dissociation energies of the hydroxides were obtained as follows: LiOH, 105 ± 2; NaOH, 80 ± 2; KOH, 85 ± 2; RbOH, 87 ± 2; and CsOH, 90 ± 2 kcal mole^–1.