A brief history of the thermal explosion research

It is said that it was J. H. van t Hoff that for the first time presented the idea that whether the thermal explosion of a self-heating substance occurs or not is decided, based on the balance between the rate of heat generation in the substance and the rate of heat transfer from the substance, having an arbitrary shape and an arbitrary size, placed in the atmosphere under isothermal conditions, to the atmosphere [13]. In the meantime, he is well-known in that he presented in 1884 the van t Hoff equation, Eq. (34), expressing the variation of the equilibrium constant with temperature.  

The equilibrium constant, K, is needless to say the ratio of the rate constant of the forward reaction, kn, to that of the reverse reaction, kn as expressed in Eq. (35). 

Immediately after the presentation of the van t Hoff equation, S. A. Arrhenius presented in 1889, on the analogy of the van t Hoff equation, Eq. (36), expressing the variation of the rate constant with temperature. He thus established simultaneously the concept of the activation energy as well. 

The integrated form of Eq. (36), i.e., Eq. (37), is referred to as the Arrhenius equation at the present time. The mathematical expression for the rate of 

There exists the magnificent system of thermodynamics behind him. 

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