Kinetics of Sicl4 Oxidation

The oxidation rate of SiCl 4 was studied at 1100° to 1300°C. The reaction was first order in SiCl 4 and zero order in O 2 up to a 20‐fold excess of O 2 . At higher O 2 concentrations, the reaction becomes first order in oxygen. The activation energy for the reaction was 96 ± 5 kcal/mol which is approximately the CI 3 SiCI bond energy. The reaction SiCl 4 → SiCl 3 + Cl is proposed as the rate‐determining step.