The use of an isothermal calorimetric detector for the study of electrically discharged O2 and the reaction of O-atoms with NO.

The key to an understanding of the mechanism of many complex reactions came in 1925. In that year Sir Hugh Taylor (1) provided evidence which suggested that atoms and radicals might play important parts as chain carriers in many chemical reactions. Soon after, Rice and his collaborators (2) used Paneth’s (3) metallic mirror test to establish that the thermal decomposition of a number of organic compounds involves these transient species. Using simple elementary reactions involving atoms and free radicals, Rice and Herzfeld were able to devise successful mechanisms for many complex organic decomposition reactions