Early Kinetics
All through the war some activity was
maintained in Hinsh's group in both gas-phase and solution kinetics, in
addition to the studies in bacterial growth. Between the end of the war and his
retirement in 1964 his interest in bacterial growth predominated, with just
over one hundred papers being published, but his involvement in classical
kinetics was also maintained; there were sixty-five papers in this field in the
same period. The gas kinetics included work on the hydrogen-oxygen reaction
already referred to, work on a wide range of pyrolytic and radical-induced
processes and some studies of gas-phase oxidation.
The latest papers published from the group -
on the influence of structure on the rate of oxidation of gaseous cycloalkanes,
on the determination of individual rate constants in the thermal decomposition
of ethane, on the inhibition and acceleration of paraffin decomposition by
nitric oxide elaborate themes which had been Hinsh's concern for many years, and
similarly we find papers on energy-entropy relations in acylations and on the
benzoylation of substituted anilines in different solvents.
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Gas kinetics: the
radical-induced polymerization of an olefin. F.A. Raal, a Rhodes Scholar from
South Africa and a D.Phil student in Hinsh's group is tapping the manometer
to prevent the mercury from sticking. |
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