The kinetics of alkaline fading of crystal violet (CV) has been studied by UV spectrophotometry and microcalorimetry in the critical binary solution of 2-butoxyethanol + water at the initial reaction stage and various temperatures. It was found that the first-order rate constants obtained from these two methods are well accorded with each other, and the temperature dependence of the rate constant obeyed the Arrhenius equation in a temperature region far from the critical point. The critical slowing down was detected by both methods near the critical point. A simple empirical crossover model was proposed and used to analyze the experimental data to obtain the critical exponents, which were 0.158 ± 0.013 and 0.133 ± 0.012 from UV spectrophotometry and microcalorimetry, respectively, and the former was in good agreement with the theoretical prediction of 0.151. The slight lower value derived from microcalorimetry was attributed to the stirring in the microcalorimeter, which weakened the critical reduction of the diffusion coefficient.

The reactions of the alkaline fading of phenolphthalein (PN) have been studied in water/sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate (AOT)/isooctane microemulsions by monitoring the absorbance changes of PN in the system with the time and the results compared with those found for the same reactions in aqueous solutions. It was found that the values of the equilibrium constants and the forward reaction rate constants in the microemulsions were significantly larger than that in aqueous solutions and decreased with increasing the molar ratio of water to AOT (ω), except for that with low ω. The temperature dependence of the reaction rate constant was analyzed to obtain the values of free energy, enthalpy, and entropy of activation, which suggests the existence of an isokinetic relationship and a common mechanism for the reactions occurring in the microemulsions with different ω. It was also observed that the competition between the reactions of the alkaline fading of PN and the hydrolyzation of AOT in water/AOT/isooctane microemulsions when the reaction time was sufficiently long.

The kinetics of the alkaline hydrolysis of sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate (AOT) in water/AOT/isooctane microemulsions has been studied by monitoring the absorbance change of the phenolphthalein in the system with time. The apparent first-order rate constant k(obs) has been obtained and found to be dependent on both the molar ratio of water to AOT ω and the temperature. The dependences of k(obs) on ω have been analyzed by a pseudophase model which gives the true rate constants k(i) of the AOT-hydrolysis reaction on the interface and the partition coefficients K(wi) for the distribution of OH(-) between aqueous and interface pseudophases at various temperatures; the latter is almost independent of the temperature and ω. The temperature dependences of the reaction rate constants k(obs) and k(i) have been analyzed to obtain enthalpy ΔH(≠), entropy ΔS(≠), and energy E(a) of activation, which indicate that the distribution of OH(-) between aqueous and interface pseudophases increases ΔS(≠) but makes no contribution to E(a) and ΔH(≠). The influence of the overall concentration of AOT in the system on the rate constant has been examined and found to be negligible. It contradicts with what was reported by García-Río et al. (1) but confirms that the first-order reaction of the AOT-hydrolysis takes place on the surfactant interface. The study of the influence of AOT-hydrolysis on the kinetics of the alkaline fading of crystal violet or phenolphthalein in the water/AOT/isooctane microemulsions suggests that corrections for the AOT-hydrolysis in these reactions are required.

The Y, band of natural germane (GeH,) has been recorded using a continuous wave stimulated Raman experiment which we describe in this paper. The resolution is about 0.003 cm-I at 10 Torr pressure. In the first stage of the analysis, the Raman lines were identified thanks to the recent study of the v1 and u3 bands made by Lepage, Champion and Robiette. In the second stage, the stimulated Raman data were combined with the infrared data to refine the excited state constants of the isotopic species "GeH.,, "GeH4 and ',Ge&.