Reaction sodium

Phosphorus pentachloride, 79 40, 42-44 end use of chlorine, 6 135t sodium reactions with, 22 766 Phosphorus pentafluoride, 79 33 Phosphorus pentahalides, 79 31-33 Phosphorus pentoxide, 79 49, 69. See also Phosphorus(V) oxides as cellulose solvent, 77 272 in hydrogen fluoride manufacture, 74 11 vapor of, 79 49... 

Physical chemical studies of dilute alkali metal-ammonia solutions indicate the principal solution species as the ammoniated metal cation M+, the ammoniated electron e , the "monomer M, the "dimer" M2 and the "metal anion" M. Most data suggest that M, M2, and M are simple electrostatic assemblies of ammoniated cations and ammoniated electrons The reaction, e + NH3 - lf 2 H2 + NH2 is reversible, and the directly measured equilibrium constant agrees fairly well with that estimated from other thermodynamic data. Kinetic data for the reaction of ethanol with sodium and for various metal-ammonia-alcohol reductions of aromatic compounds suggest that steady-state concentrations of ammonium ion are established. Ethanol-sodium reaction data allow estimation of an upper limit for the rate constant of e + NH4+ 7, H2 + NH3. 

In view of the mechanism suggested above for the ethanol-sodium reaction, it seems likely that reduction of aromatic compounds by solutions of alcohols and alkali metals in liquid ammonia proceeds by a general mechanism involving a steady-state concentration of ammonium ion. Krapcho and Bothner-By (29) observed that the reduction of benzene and several substituted benzenes in lithium-alcohol-ammonia solutions,... 

I am, however, only one of many who have seen the extraordinary possibilities offered by harpooning reactions. For example, Dudley Herschbach began his life as a dynamicist by studying that type of reaction. One should also add that my father himself was part of a continuous progression. What drew him to sodium reactions was that Fritz Haber had been studying an unexplained chemiluminescence from them. This was in Berlin and my father was in Haber s Institute as a young researcher. The history, as is usual in science, constitutes an unbroken chain. 

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