The reaction interface

A reaction interface is the zone immediately adjoining the surface of contact between reactant and product and within which bond redistributions occur. Prevailing conditions are different from those characteristic of the reactant bulk as demonstrated by the enhanced reactivity, usually attributed to local strain, catalysis by products, etc. Considerable difficulties attend investigation of the mechanisms of interface reactions because this thin zone is interposed between two relatively much larger particles. Accordingly, many proposed reaction models are necessarily based on indirect evidence. Without wishing to appear unnecessarily pessimistic, we consider it appropriate to mention here some of the problems inherent in the provision of detailed mechanisms for solid phase rate processes. These difficulties are not always apparent in interpretations and proposals appearing in the literature. 

It is appropriate to emphasize again that mechanisms formulated on the basis of kinetic observations should, whenever possible, be supported by independent evidence, including, for example, (where appropriate) X-ray diffraction data (to recognize phases present and any topotactic relationships [1257]), reactivity studies of any possible (or postulated) intermediates, conductivity measurements (to determine the nature and mobilities of surface species and defects which may participate in reaction), influence on reaction rate of gaseous additives including products which may be adsorbed on active surfaces, microscopic examination (directions of interface advance, particle cracking, etc.), surface area determinations and any other relevant measurements. 

Mechanisms of decomposition reactions at interfaces are conveniently considered with reference to the diagrammatic representations in Fig. 8 (R = reactant, 1,1 = intermediates and P = product) and classified under the following headings. 

Various types of intermediate behaviour embodying features of more than one of these effects can be visualized. In addition to the considerations (i)—(iii) above, the interface may behave as a source or sink for the creation and/or annihilation of imperfections such as lattice defects and electrons, which can be important participants in the overall change (for clarity, such effects have not been included in Fig. 8). The decomposition characteristics of many solids are influenced by externally supplied energy such as irradiation, cold working, etc. 

No single criterion has been recognized as constituting a satisfactory basis for the systematic classification of the kinetics of solid-phase reactions (Chapt. 1, Sect. 3). A classification based on the anion is preferred here since it is this constituent which undergoes breakdown in most reactions of interest and proposed reaction mechanisms for substances containing a common anion often include similar features. 

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The reacting sohd is in granular form. Decrease in the area of the reaction interface occurs as the reaction proceeds. The mathematical modeling is distinguished from that with flat surfaces, which are most often used in experimentation. 

The reaction interface can be defined as the nominal boundary surface between reactant and the solid product. This simple representation has provided a basic model that has been most valuable in the development of the theory of kinetics of reactions involving solids. In practice, it must be accepted that the interface is a zone of finite thickness extending for a small number of lattice units on either side of the nominal contact sur-... 

Tenets (i) and (ii). These are applicable only where the reactant undergoes no melting and no systematic change of composition (e.g. by the diffusive removal of a constituent) and any residual solid product phase offers no significant barrier to contact between reactants or the escape of volatile products [33,34]. When all these conditions are obeyed, the shape of the fraction decomposed (a) against time (f) curve for an isothermal reaction can, in principle, be related to the geometry of formation and advance of the reaction interface. The general solution of this problem involves intractable mathematical difficulties but simplifications have been made for many specific applications [1,28—31,35]. 

Since the free energy of a molecule in the liquid phase is not markedly different from that of the same species volatilized, the variation in the intrinsic reactivity associated with the controlling step in a solid—liquid process is not expected to be very different from that of the solid—gas reaction. Interpretation of kinetic data for solid—liquid reactions must, however, always consider the possibility that mass transfer in the homogeneous phase of reactants to or products from, the reaction interface is rate-limiting [108,109], Kinetic aspects of solid—liquid reactions have been discussed by Taplin [110]. 

Measurements of overall reaction rates (of product formation or of reactant consumption) do not necessarily provide sufficient information to describe completely and unambiguously the kinetics of the constituent steps of a composite rate process. A nucleation and growth reaction, for example, is composed of the interlinked but distinct and different changes which lead to the initial generation and to the subsequent advance of the reaction interface. Quantitative kinetic analysis of yield—time data does not always lead to a unique reaction model but, in favourable systems, the rate parameters, considered with reference to quantitative microscopic measurements, can be identified with specific nucleation and growth steps. Microscopic examinations provide positive evidence for interpretation of shapes of fractional decomposition (a)—time curves. In reactions of solids, it is often convenient to consider separately the geometry of interface development and the chemical changes which occur within that zone of locally enhanced reactivity. 

X= 2) or (P = 0, X = 3) and the distinction between these possibilities is most satisfactorily based upon independent evidence, such as microscopic observations. The growth of compact nuclei inevitably results in the consumption of surfaces and when these outer faces, the sites of nucleation, have been eliminated, j3 necessarily is zero this may result in a diminution of n. The continued inward advance of the reaction interface at high a results in a situation comparable with the contracting volume reaction (discussed below) reference to this similarity was also made in consideration of the Mampel approach discussed above. Shapes of the deceleratory region of a time curves for nucleation and growth reactions and the contracting volume rate process are closely similar [409]. 

Topley and Hume [453], in a study of the dehydration of CaC03 6 H20, assumed the rapid initial formation of (on average) a single nucleus on the surface of each particle of reactant, represented as a sphere of radius a. In the absence of preferential surface development, the reaction interface penetrates the reactant at equal rates in all inward directions (kG = dr/df) and the volume of material reacted at time t is that volume of a sphere, having its centre at the site of surface nucleation and of radius kGt, which falls within the reactant. The fractional reaction, the zone of interpenetrating spheres, at time t is... 

Another reaction mechanism, which is conveniently mentioned under this heading, is due to Hill [479] who suggested that ions (atoms or molecules) frorh the product may move through the dislocation network of the reactant and activate potential nuclei, particularly in the vicinity of the reaction interface. Thus a reaction zone, within which potential nucleusforming sites are activated, is developed in front of an advancing interface. With appropriate assumptions, this reaction model provides an alternative explanation of the exponential rate law, eqn. (8), which in Sect. 3.2 was discussed with reference to chain reactions. 

Shannon assumes that atoms or molecules at the reaction interface have... 

The above explanations, (i)—(iv), of S—T behaviour suggest that changes at the reaction interface may include the following factors which... 

Rate parameters [(da/df), A, E measured for dehydroxylations are frequently sensitive to the availability of water vapour in the vicinity of the reactant and this accounts for the apparent variations in kinetic data sometimes found between different reports concerned with the same reaction. Water adsorbed on product adjoining the reaction interface could be expected to participate in the reversible proton transfer step, the precursor to water elimination. Despite this influence of PH2o on reaction rate, we are aware of no reported instance of S—T behaviour in dehydroxylations. 

Giovanoli and Briitsch [264] studied the kinetics of vacuum dehydroxylation of 7-FeO 0H(- -7 Fe203). It was not possible to demonstrate satisfactory obedience to a single kinetic expression. Microscopic examinations detected the occurrence of random nucleation over reactant surfaces and crystallographic indications of the specific structural reorganization steps, which occur at the reaction interface, are discussed. 

While general agreement has been reached concerning the catalytic behaviour of the product metal in promoting reaction, other aspects of the rate process have been less satisfactorily characterized these include the changes which precede nucleus formation, the distribution of such sites and development of the reaction interface. 

There have been several kinetic studies of the calcination of dolomite [29], a reaction of considerable technological importance. As in many reversible reactions, the rate of carbon dioxide release is sensitive to the prevailing pressure of this product (.Pco2) in the vicinity of the reaction interfaces. At low pressures (PCo2 < 12 Torr), reaction proceeds to completion in a single stage between 900 and 950 K... 

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