On the Theory of Gas Reactions.

(Heinrich Löwy, Ann. d. Phys. 1915, p. 561).

Quite a long time ago Liebig expressed the idea that in catalytic reactions, apparently, a role is played by resonance between the molecular vibrations of the catalyst and of the substance participating in the reaction; or, translating this idea into the language of electrodynamics, one may say that catalytic reactions are something very similar to a kind of internal photo-chemical process. This idea, very remarkable also from the point of view of modern teaching on the solid body, where electromagnetic processes are assigned an exclusive role, appears highly plausible. Löwy’s work sets itself the aim of verifying, in gas catalytic reactions, the fruitfulness of the idea expressed. First of all Löwy shows that if the experimental and theoretical material of recent years speaks against direct Liebig resonance, then nevertheless it is very probable that an interaction exists between the electromagnetic vibrations of a gas molecule and the molecules of the catalyst, in view of the fact that gas catalytic reactions take place in an adsorbed layer of relatively high concentration, where the region of natural frequencies within which the system of oscillators reaches a maximum is different than in the non-adsorbed gas.

Löwy next considers an ordinary gas reaction proceeding according to the scheme:

\[ (A)+(B)\rightleftarrows(AB). \]

And, taking the number of decomposing molecules to be proportional to the vibrational energy \(E\), which, in view of its quantum character, in turn receives the following expression for the mean vibrational energy necessary for the decomposition of the molecule \((AB)\),

\[ \epsilon = \frac{\sum (nh\nu)^2 e^{-\frac{nh\nu}{kT}}} {\sum (nh\nu)e^{-\frac{nh\nu}{kT}}} \]

where \(n = 1, 2, 3\), etc.