A study has been made of the synthesis of nickel carbonyl from carbon monoxide and nickel. No evidence was found to support the previous conclusions of Mittasch that the reaction is of second order with respect to carbon monoxide, but, on the contrary, the reaction appears to be either zero or first order with respect to the monoxide, depending on the activity of the nickel involved. Attempts to correlate this synthesis with the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis of hydrocarbons by calculating the approximate rate of carbonyl synthesis at 19
