Reactions of Sodium with Active Hydrogen

Abstract

The chemiluminescent flame produced when sodium vapor diffuses into hydrogen coming from a discharge has been photographed and the ``intensity profile'' has been analyzed in detail according to productemitter flame theory. The analysis shows that sodium is being consumed. Attempts to account for this consumption on the basis of ternary reactions, lead to rate constants 10⁴—10⁵ times larger than those reported in the literature for reactions of this type. It appears that sodium is being consumed by a binary reaction with some species formed in or by the discharge. Since reaction with electronically excited metastable H₂^* can be excluded, it is proposed that the binary reaction is Na+H₂^† (v≥6)→NaH+H, where H₂^† is vibrationally excited hydrogen in its ground electronic state.