Temperatures of the Attainable Superheat of Some Thermally Unstable Liquids

The paper gives the results of measuring the temperatures of the attainable superheat of some liquids that are thermally unstable at these temperatures. The technique of heating a thin wire probe placed into a liquid under study with electric-current pulses has been used. The length of pulses is from 10−5 to 10−3 s, which corresponds to a heating rate of 105 to 108 K·s−1. The influence of a chemical reaction in the liquid phase on the temperature of the attainable superheat has been considered. In particular, it has been shown that boiling initiated by an elementary act of an exothermic chemical reaction is of a low probability. A method of calculating the temperature of the attainable superheat of thermally unstable liquids under conditions of quick heating has been developed. A method for the determination of the kinetic parameters of thermal decomposition from the measurements of the temperature of the attainable superheat is discussed.