Gas-chromatographic studies of the products in a sealed TE CO2laser discharge

In this investigation the degraded gas mixture in a sealed TE CO2laser discharge was analyzed gas-chromatographically, which enabled us to determine the concentration of CO accurately, even in the presence of large quantities of N2. According to the reversible decomposition reaction 2CO2 2CO + O2, [CO]/2[O2], which should be unity, was found to be noticeably more than unity. The deviation of the O2concentration from that needed to satisfy the CO2decomposition equation was more than 26 percent. No oxides of nitrogen were detected and the missing oxygen was recovered when the degraded gas mixture was heated to the dissociation temperature of ozone.