Kinetics of the carbon monoxide oxidation reaction under microwave heating

915 MHz microwave heating has been used to drive the CO oxidation reaction over Pd/Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} with out significantly affecting the reaction kinetics. As compared to an identical conventionally heated system, the activation energy, pre-exponential factor, and reaction order with respect to CO were unchanged. Temperature was measured using a thermocouple extrapolation technique. Microwave-induced thermal gradients were found to play a significant role in kinetic observations. The authors chose the CO oxidation reaction over a supported metal catalyst because the reaction kinetics are well known, and because of the diverse dielectric properties of the various elements in the system: CO is a polar molecule, O{sub 2} and CO{sub 2} are non-polar, Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} is a dielectric, and Pt and Pd are conductors.