Chapter 13, Problem 13.81QE

The gas-phase reaction of nitrogen monoxide with chlorine proceeds to form nitrosyl chloride.

$\begin{array}{l}2\text{NO}(\text{g})+C{l}_2(\text{g})\to 2\text{NOCl}(\text{g})\\ \text{rate}=k{[}^{\text{NO}}{[}_{\text{Cl}}\end{array}$

Evaluate the following proposed mechanism to determine whether it is consistent with the experimental results, and identify intermediates, if any.

$\begin{array}{l}2\text{NO}\underset{k_{-1}}{\overset{k_1}{\rightleftarrows }}{\text{N}}_2{\text{O}}_2\text{Fast, reversible}\\ {\text{N}}_{\text{2}}{\text{O}}_{\text{2}}(\text{g}){\text{+Cl}}_{\text{2}}(\text{g})\to \text{2NOCl(g)}\text{Slow }(\text{rate-limiting})\text{ step}\end{array}$