Catalysis by tungsten of oxygen transfer from nitrous oxide to carbon monoxide

Abstract

A tungsten filament which had been partially oxygenated by reaction with nitrous oxide exchanged oxygen with gas-phase carbon monoxide when the filament temperature was raised to 840 K. However, the fully oxygenated filament did not exchange most of the adsorbed oxygen with carbon monoxide until its temperature reached 1370 K. The transfer of oxygen from nitrous oxide to carbon monoxide when an equimolar mixture of the gases streamed over the filament was not measurable until the filament was hot enough to decompose some of the nitrous oxide continuously. Above this temperature the rate of transfer increased smoothly with rise in filament temperature.