In reply to Jones Beene's message of Sat, 17 May 2008 07:15:38 -0700 (PDT): Hi, [snip] >--- Robin > >> One is forced to wonder where all the Oxygen >went.... my guess would be that it combined with the >Fe to form Fe2O3 (rust). > >They state that the iron is a "catalyst" - not a >reactant. If true, a catalyst does not participate in >the reaction.
I suspect they got that wrong. Perhaps they were so excited by the formation of the phenol that they didn't notice the reduction in the quantity of Fe, particularly if the Fe2O3 (Fe3O4?) appeared as a coating on the outside of the Fe particles. [snip] Regards, Robin van Spaandonk The shrub is a plant.
