Gas-phase Disproportionation of Nitric Oxide at Elevated Pressures

T.P. Melia's chemical kinetics study of the disproportionation of nitric oxide (NO), 3NO M NO2 + N2O, (Melia, T.P. (1965) J. Inorg. Nucl. Chem., 27, 95-98), which is the most quoted quantitative investigation presently available, revealed a rather strong dependence of the effective rate constant, Kk ', of Melia's third-order rate law,- d[NO]/d t = Kk'[NO]3, on the initial pressure of NO. In order to estimate extent of accumulation of NO2 and N2O as a function of time by integration of the rate law, we have evaluated the dependence of the effective rate constant as a function of pressure and thus as a function of time on the basis of the non-ideality of NO gas. Although our approach is crude in that the non-idealities of NO2 and N2O and other NOx products and a probable deviation of the gas mixture from the Dalton's law have not been considered, it provides a means for approximately estimating the rate of accumulation of NO2 and N2O based on Melia's data. According to these calculations, the extent of t...