Studies on hydrogen–oxygen systems in the electrical discharge. II. The reactions of hydrogen atoms with liquid ozone

Abstract

We have reinvestigated in detail the infrared spectra between 4000 and 600 cm−1 of the solid products formed by reacting liquid ozone at −190 °C with a stream of hydrogen gas dissociated in an electrodeless discharge. Extreme care was exercised to get "clean" spectra, free from any contaminants. All the spectra thus obtained showed very clearly the characteristic absorption bands of H2O2 at 2840 and 1430 cm−1, and the much weaker one at 880 cm−1; with deuterium atoms the former bands were shifted to 2100 and 1080 cm−1 respectively. Thus previous contentions that hydrogen peroxide is not one of the primary products of that reaction are disproved. The other infrared bands of H2O2 were not conspicuous, due either to their diffuse nature in the vitreous spectra or to extensive overlapping by the strong absorption of H2O, the other major component. Warming the material up to −110 °C caused some devitrification, but no significant change in the spectra. No new bands which could be assigned unambiguously to the hypothetical molecule H2O4 were observed.