The Effect of Variations in Surface on the Photolysis of Acetone

An investigation of the acetone photolysis in the ``continuum'' and in the ``banded'' region has been made in clean quartz vessels and in vessels coated with potassium chloride and with lead. No appreciable change in the C2H6/CO ratio occurs in the coated vessels. This is surprising since biacetyl formation is apparently at least partly heterogeneous, and the ratio would be expected to be sensitive to the condition of the surface. A few experiments were also made on the mercury photosensitized decomposition of acetone. Very high C2H6/CO ratios were found. It is concluded that this is due merely to higher absorbed intensities for a given incident intensity.