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Apply the steady-state approximation in chemical kinetics to the hydrogen and chlorine free radicals. After a short initiation transient their formation and consumption can balance while the stable reactants continue to be depleted and hydrogen chloride accumulates. Accordingly set $\mathrm{d}[\mathrm{H}]/\mathrm{d}t\simeq 0$ and $\mathrm{d}[\mathrm{Cl}]/\mathrm{d}t\simeq 0$.

This does not mean the free radicals are absent or that the whole mixture is at equilibrium. hydrogen and chlorine molecules and the hydrogen chloride product generally cannot all be assigned steady concentrations over appreciable conversion. The inert-body concentration can be treated as an imposed or slowly varying bath quantity; it is not an intermediate to which a free radical balance must be applied.

Using bonds broken minus bonds formed, the enthalpies per mole of elementary events areUnder the steady-state approximation in chemical kinetics, initiation and termination have equal event rates, so their enthalpy contributions cancel. The two propagation steps also have equal flux, and their combined enthalpy is $5-189=\boxed{-184\mathrm{kJ}\mathrm{mo}{\mathrm{l}}^{-1}}$ per overall reaction producing two moles of HCl. Step 3 dominates the heat release; the small endothermic contribution of step 2 only slightly offsets it.

An insulated vessel cannot remove this released energy as heat, so its temperature rises as reaction proceeds. In a rigid vessel the precise energy balance uses reaction internal energy and constant-volume heat capacities, whereas a constant-pressure adiabatic balance uses enthalpy; the strong exothermic conclusion is the same. Warming changes the rate constants, and activated initiation and propagation can accelerate, producing positive thermal feedback and potentially a rapid temperature rise. A numerical final temperature or a claim of an inevitable explosion is not justified without composition, heat capacities and heat-loss information. The initially assumed 298-K rate constants cannot remain fixed throughout an appreciable adiabatic temperature rise.

The dominant OH-to-HO${}_2$ pseudo-first-order rate is $k_5[{\mathrm{O}}_3]=90{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$, corresponding to $0.0111\mathrm{s}$. Recycling HO${}_2$ through atomic oxygen and NO has rate $k_6[\mathrm{O}]+k_8[\mathrm{NO}]=0.0218{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}$, corresponding to $45.9\mathrm{s}$ for an individual HO${}_2$ radical. A fixed-total two-state exchange relaxes at the sum of forward and reverse rates, giving about $0.0111\mathrm{s}$ for the partition perturbation. Its fast partition is thereforeThis supports a steady-state approximation in chemical kinetics for rapidly recycled intermediates if the parent concentrations vary slowly. It does not by itself establish stationarity of the entire HOx family. The later source–termination estimate gives a family turnover time of about 16 hours, far longer than partition relaxation; a stationary absolute abundance additionally assumes sufficiently persistent radiation and background conditions. This is the distinction between fast family partition and slow family balance.