The Heterogeneous Decomposition of Hydrazine. Part 2. The Use of N15 as a Tracer to Study the Decomposition of Hydrazine on the Shell 405 Catalyst

摘要

The origin of nitrogen produced by catalytic decomposition of liquid hydrazine has been studied by measuring the distribution of N15 in nitrogen produced from N15-enriched hydrazine in a large excess of normal hydrazine. From isotope abundance ratios deduced from mass spectrometric analysis it appears that hydrazine decomposes on the Shell 405 catalyst (iridium on alumina) to give nitrogen in which both atoms come from the same hydrazine molecule. The overall reaction may be represented by 3 N2H4 yields N2 + 4 NH3, side reactions producing a little hydrogen. Hydrazine hydrochloride decomposes on the same catalyst, without side reactions, in exact accordance with 3 N2H5(+) yields N2 + 4NH3 + 3H(+), also without N-N bond fission. Using rhodium as the catalyst, both hydrazine and hydrazine hydrochloride decompose to give nitrogen molecules, the two atoms of which stem from the same hydrazine molecule. (Author)