Chain Reaction

chain reaction, in chemistry and physics, process yielding products that initiate further processes of the same kind, a self-sustaining sequence. Examples from chemistry are burning a fuel gas, the development of rancidity in fats, “knock” in internal-combustion engines, and the polymerization of ethylene to polyethylene. The best-known examples in physics are nuclear fissions brought about by neutrons. Chain reactions are in general very rapid but are also highly sensitive to reaction conditions, probably because the substances that sustain the reaction are easily affected by substances other than the reactants themselves.

A chemical chain reaction proceeds by a sequence generally subdivided into three stages: (1) Initiation, in which a reactive intermediate, which may be an atom, an ion, or a neutral molecular fragment, is formed, usually through the action of an agent such as light, heat, or a catalyst. (2) Propagation, whereby the intermediate reacts with the original reactants, producing stable products and another intermediate, whether of the same or different kind; the new intermediate reacts as before, so a repetitive cycle begins. (3) Termination, which may be natural, as when all the reactants have been consumed or the containing vessel causes the chain carriers to recombine as fast as they are formed, but more often is induced intentionally by introduction of substances called inhibitors or antioxidants.

So-called branching chain reactions are a form of chain reaction in which the number of chain carriers increases in each propagation. As a result the reaction accelerates very rapidly, sometimes being completed in less than 1/1,000th of a second. This condition sometimes is referred to as a chemical explosion.

Nuclear chain reactions are series of nuclear fissions (splitting of atomic nuclei), each initiated by a neutron produced in a preceding fission. For example, 2¹/₂ neutrons on the average are released by the fission of each uranium-235 nucleus that absorbs a low-energy neutron. Provided that no more than 1¹/₂ neutrons per fission on the average are lost through leakage and non-fission-producing capture by other nuclei, one neutron per fission on the average remains to sustain the series. Thus the chain reaction is self-sustaining if the ratio of the number of daughter neutrons that cause fission to the number of parent neutrons is 1 (as in nuclear reactors) or greater than 1 (as in nuclear explosions). The Italian-born physicist Enrico Fermi and his coworkers achieved the first self-sustaining fission chain reaction in 1942 at the University of Chicago.