The determination of naphthalene in town gas by the picrate method. I. The dissociation of naphthalene picrate

Abstract The reaction constant, and its temperature‐dependence, of the reaction naphthalene + picric acid ⇌ naphthalene picrate has been determined and shown to account for the losses of naphthalene in tests in which air containing naphthalene in known concentrations was bubbled through picric acid. This enables a correction to be applied when carrying out the determination a t 10–18°, the wash‐bottles being immersed in a thermostatically controlled bath. Dissociation of the recovered picrates, when washing after filtering, can be minimized by the use of 0·02N picric acid solution as the washing medium.