Nickel deuterium-methane exchange

The exchange of methane with deuterium has been followed on nickel films 12), on a cobalt-thoria Fischer-Tropsch catalyst 13) and on films of rhodium, platinum, palladium, and tungsten 30). The important features of the exchange over the metal films may be summarized as follows ... 

When D2O was substituted for H2O no deuterium was found in the unreacted methane analysed mass spectrometrically at 10% conversion of methane to carbon monoxide. No H-D exchange with hydrogens of methane has been observed in the CH4 -h H2O -h D2 system. In the case of nickel catalyst supported on y-alumina F containing 7.0% Ni) the kinetic dependences (log rate versus log Pch4 nd log Ph2o) e different. Some incorporation of deuterium into methane was found when the CH4 -h D2O reaction was carried out at 10 torr of CH4. The rate of the reaction Wfor low methane pressures (at constant hydrogen pressure) has been found to be... 

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