OTHER HYDRIDES OF GROUP V ELEMENTS

The slow, thermal decomposition of hydrazoic acid in a static system has been studied by Meyer and Schumacher58. It turned out to be completely governed by heterogeneous catalysis. There are no studies on the kinetics of the homogeneous decomposition of this substance save for the investigation of its decomposition flame59. From the variation of flame properties with pressure it can be deduced that second-order reactions control the over-all rate. The unimolecular reaction 

The kinetics of the thermally induced homogeneous decomposition of phosphine (PH3) have not yet been studied. The species PH2, PH and P2 are formed on flash photolysis of PH3 and could be identified by their absorption spectra63. There are proposals as to the mechanism of the consecutive process after the photochemical primary step, but nothing is known about the kinetic parameters of these reactions. With arsine and antimony hydride only the heterogeneous decomposition has been studied64,65. 

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