scholarly journals On apparent barrier-free reactions

Author(s):  
Maikel Ballester

Rate coefficients of bi-molecular chemical reactions are fundamental for kinetic models. The rate coefficient dependence on temperature is commonly extracted from the analyses of the reaction minimum energy path. However, a full dimension study of the same reaction may suggest a different asymptotic low-temperature limit in the rate constant than the obtained from the energetic profile.

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S350) ◽  
pp. 382-383
Author(s):  
Niclas A. West ◽  
Edward Rutter ◽  
Mark A. Blitz ◽  
Leen Decin ◽  
Dwayne E. Heard

AbstractStellar winds of Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars are responsible for the production of ∼85% of the gas molecules in the interstellar medium (ISM), and yet very few of the gas phase rate coefficients under the relevant conditions (10 – 3000 K) needed to model the rate of production and loss of these molecules in stellar winds have been experimentally measured. If measured at all, the value of the rate coefficient has often only been obtained at room temperature, with extrapolation to lower and higher temperatures using the Arrhenius equation. However, non-Arrhenius behavior has been observed often in the few measured rate coefficients at low temperatures. In previous reactions studied, theoretical simulations of the formation of long-lived pre-reaction complexes and quantum mechanical tunneling through the barrier to reaction have been utilized to fit these non-Arrhenius behaviours of rate coefficients.Reaction rate coefficients that were predicted to produce the largest change in the production/loss of Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) in stellar winds at low temperatures were selected from a sensitivity analysis. Here we present measurements of rate coefficients using a pulsed Laval nozzle apparatus with the Pump Laser Photolysis - Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLP-LIF) technique. Gas flow temperatures between 30 – 134 K have been produced by the University of Leeds apparatus through the controlled expansion of N2 or Ar gas through Laval nozzles of a range of Mach numbers between 2.49 and 4.25.Reactions of interest include those of OH, CN, and CH with volatile organic species, in particular formaldehyde, a molecule which has been detected in the ISM. Kinetics measurements of these reactions at low temperatures will be presented using the decay of the radical reagent. Since formaldehyde and the formal radical (HCO) are potential building blocks of COMs in the interstellar medium, low temperature reaction rate coefficients for their production and loss can help to predict the formation pathways of COMs observed in the interstellar medium.


Gas-phase dissociation of fluorine ( 1 Ʃ + g ) molecules in an agron bath at 3000 K was studied by using the 3D Monte Carlo classical trajectory (3DMCCT) method. To assess the importance of the potential energy surface (PES) in such calculations, three surfaces, with a fixed, experimentally determined F 2 dissociation energy, were constructed. These surfaces span the existing experimental uncertainties in the shape of the F 2 potential. The first potential was the widest and softest; in the second potential the anharmonicity was minimized. The intermediate potential was constructed to ‘localize’ anharmonicity in the energy range in which the collisions are most reactive. The remaining parameters for each PES were estimated from the best available data on interatomic potentials. By using the single uniform ensemble (SUE) method (Kutz, H. D. & Burns, G. J. chem. Phys . 72, 3652-3657 (1980)), large ensembles of trajectories (LET) were generated for the PES. Two such ensembles consisted of 30000 trajectories each and the third of 26200. It was found that the computed one-way-flux equilibrium rate coefficients (Widom, B. Science 148, 1555-1560 (1965)) depend in a systematic way upon the anharmonicity of the potential, with the most anharmonic potential yielding the largest rate coefficient. Steady-state reaction-rate constants, which correspond to experimentally observable rate constants, were calculated by the SUE method. It was determined that this method yields (for a given trajectory ensemble, PES and translational temperature) a unique steady-state rate constant, independent of the initial, arbitrarily chosen, state (Tolman, R. C. The principles of statistical mechanics , p. 17. Oxford University Press (1938)) of the LET, and consequently independent of the corresponding initial value of the reaction rate coefficient. For each initial state of the LET, the development of the steady-state rate constant from the equilibrium rate coefficient was smooth, monotonic, and consistent with the detailed properties of the PES. It was found that, although the increased anharmonicity of the F 2 potential enhanced the equilibrium rate coefficients, it also enhanced the non-equilibrium effects. As a result, the steady-state rate constants were found to be insensitive to the variation of the PES. Thus, the differences among the steady-state rate constants for the three potentials were of the order of their standard errors, which was about 15% or less. On the other hand, the calculated rate constants exceeded the experimental rate constant by a factor of five to six. Because within the limitations of classical mechanics the calculations were ab initio , it was tentatively concluded that the discrepancy of five to six is due to the use of classical mechanics rather than details of the PES structure.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khoa T. Lam ◽  
Curtis J. Wilhelmsen ◽  
Theodore Dibble

Models suggest BrHgONO to be the major Hg(II) species formed in the global oxidation of Hg(0), and BrHgONO undergoes rapid photolysis to produce the thermally stable radical BrHgO•. We previously used quantum chemistry to demonstrate that BrHgO• can, like OH radical, readily can abstract hydrogen atoms from sp<sup>3</sup>-hybridized carbon atoms as well as add to NO and NO<sub>2</sub>. In the present work, we reveal that BrHgO• can also add to C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub> to form BrHgOCH<sub>2</sub>CH<sub>2</sub>•, although this addition appears to proceed with a lower rate constant than the analogous addition of •OH to C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub>. Additionally, BrHgO• can readily react with HCHO in two different ways: either by addition to the carbon or by abstraction of a hydrogen atom. The minimum energy path for the BrHgO• + HCHO reaction bifurcates, forming two pre-reactive complexes, each of which passes over a separate transition state to form a different product.


1992 ◽  
Vol 150 ◽  
pp. 7-12
Author(s):  
B. R. Rowe

This paper is devoted to chemistry in the gas phase dealing firstly with ion-molecule reactions at extremely low temperature. The experimental techniques that have been used in this field are shortly presented and the reactions that have been studied using the CRESU(S) method reviewed. In the second part, the most recent measurements concerning dissociative recombination are discussed, including studies of branching ratio and new determination of the rate coefficient for H+3 ions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 153 (5) ◽  
pp. 054122
Author(s):  
Stephen Jon Quiton ◽  
Urbashi Mitra ◽  
Shaama Mallikarjun Sharada

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khoa T. Lam ◽  
Curtis J. Wilhelmsen ◽  
Theodore Dibble

Models suggest BrHgONO to be the major Hg(II) species formed in the global oxidation of Hg(0), and BrHgONO undergoes rapid photolysis to produce the thermally stable radical BrHgO•. We previously used quantum chemistry to demonstrate that BrHgO• can, like OH radical, readily can abstract hydrogen atoms from sp<sup>3</sup>-hybridized carbon atoms as well as add to NO and NO<sub>2</sub>. In the present work, we reveal that BrHgO• can also add to C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub> to form BrHgOCH<sub>2</sub>CH<sub>2</sub>•, although this addition appears to proceed with a lower rate constant than the analogous addition of •OH to C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>4</sub>. Additionally, BrHgO• can readily react with HCHO in two different ways: either by addition to the carbon or by abstraction of a hydrogen atom. The minimum energy path for the BrHgO• + HCHO reaction bifurcates, forming two pre-reactive complexes, each of which passes over a separate transition state to form a different product.


Author(s):  
Vernet Lasrado ◽  
Devendra Alhat ◽  
Yan Wang

In this paper, we give a review of recent transition path search methods for nanoscale phase transition simulation A potential energy surface (PES) characterizes detailed information about phase transitions where the transition path is related to a minimum energy path on the PES. The minimum energy path connects reactant to product via saddle point(s) on the PES. Once the minimum energy path is generated, the activation energy required for transitions can be determined. Using transition state theory, one can estimate the rate constant of the transition. The rate constant is critical to accurately simulate the transition process with sampling algorithms such as kinetic Monte Carlo.


1979 ◽  
Vol 76 ◽  
pp. 1013-1015 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.P. Kiryukhin ◽  
I.M. Barkalov ◽  
V.l. Goldanskii

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