ABSTRACT
The chemical equilibrium strongly favors the formation of total oxidation products. Therefore, the reason that ethylene oxide is not further oxidized is purely kinetic.
It is now generally accepted [30] that the kinetics of ethylene oxidation on silver can be described by a triangular scheme:
On a good industrial catalyst the ratio of the rates can be ~1/!:2 6 and ~2/!:.3 -- 2.5. They strongly depend on the catalyst and reaction conditions.
