Discussion of “the influence of chemical equilibrium on fluid-solid reaction rates and the falsification of activation energy”

Abstract

In a recent article, Sohn^[1] tried to establish, by way of demonstrating the importance of thermodynamics in kinetic analyses, that fluid-solid reactions (forming no solid product layer) with small equilibrium constants tend to be kinetically controlled by mass transfer, displaying falsified apparent activation energies. Admitting the thermodynamic involvement in such analyses, the present discussion tries to counterestablish through an example that those reactions may as well tend to be chemically controlled or follow a mixed control kinetics, in which cases no such falsification occurs.