Abstract
SINCE the realization, half a century ago, that free energy furnishes an exact criterion for the direction in which chemical changes occur, the control of such processes to the desired end-point is easily accomplished. Indeed this is one of the main functions of chemical thermodynamics. That knowledge, however, provides absolutely no information about the nature and speed of the interactions between molecules. Moreover, in view of the fact that the control of reaction rate is not less important than the production of the specified products, an understanding of the mechanism of reaction is an essential complement to a knowledge of free energy change.
Article PDF
REFERENCES
Discussion on Kinetics, Trans. Faraday Soc., 34, 1 (1938).
Melville and Bolland, Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 160, 384 (1937).
Farkas, L. and Farkas, A., and Rideal, Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 146, 630 (1934).
Morikawa, Benedict and Taylor, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 58, 1445 (1936).
For a summary see Melville, Science Progress, No. 123, 499 (1937).
Evans and Polanyi, Trans. Faraday Soc., 34, 11 (1938).
Melville, Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 163, 511 (1937).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
MELVILLE, H. Some Aspects of Chemical Kinetics in Gaseous Reactions*. Nature 141, 899–902 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141899a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141899a0