IV. On the action of electricity on gases.—II. On the electric decomposition of carbonic-acid gas

• Published in: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Royal Society 1874
• Subjects: Carbonic acid
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1874.0004; https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rstl.1874.0004

At a very early period of the investigation on the action of electricity upon oxygen, which formed the subject of my previous memoir, the idea occurred to me that although but a small and limited proportion of the total oxygen passed through the induction-tube was converted into ozone (which proportion could not be exceeded by any modification I had been able to effect in the conditions of the experiment), it might be practicable to replace that portion of the oxygen which was unaffected by the action of electricity by an indifferent gas, and thus effect the total conversion of oxygen into ozone, or even the actual isolation of the ozone by the subsequent removal of the gas by which it was diluted. Thus, for example, by the passage of 100 cub. centims. of oxygen through the induction-tube, a gas can readily be obtained of which the iodinetitre is 5 cub. centims. This corresponds, according to my previous experiments, to an absorption by hyposulphite of soda of 10 cub. centims. of a gas containing in that space the matter of 15 cub. centims. of oxygen. If, therefore, we were to mix 15 cub. centims. of oxygen with 85 cub. centims. of an indifferent gas which should be unaffected by the action of the electricity, and pass the mixed gases through the induction-tube (assuming the same proportion of ozone to be still formed as in the case of the passage through the tube of pure oxygen), the total amount of oxygen in the gas would be con­verted into ozone, and be removed in that form by passing the gas though a solution of hyposulphite of soda. With the view of testing this idea by a critical experiment, I passed such a mixture of carbonic-acid gas and oxygen through the induction-tube. The formation of ozone was at once apparent, and was rendered evident by the action of the gas issuing from the induction-tube upon a neutral solution of iodide of potassium. But on examining the composition of the gas I soon discovered that the proportion of oxygen in it had actually increased, owing to the decomposition in the ...