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Title: Determination of stepsize parameters for intermolecular vibrational energy transfer. Final report, May 1, 1987--December 31, 1991

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/10134712· OSTI ID:10134712

Intermolecular energy transfer of highly excited polyatomic molecules plays an important role in many complex chemical systems: combustion, high temperature and atmospheric chemistry. By monitoring the relaxation of internal energy we have observed trends in the collisional efficiency ({beta}) for energy transfer as a function of the substrate`s excitation energy and the complexities of substrate and deactivator. For a given substrate {beta} increases as the deactivator`s mass increase to {approximately}30 amu and then exhibits a nearly constant value; this is due to a mass mismatch between the atoms of the colliders. In a homologous series of substrate molecules (C{sub 3}{minus}C{sub 8}) {beta} decreases as the number of atoms in the substrate increases; replacing F with H increases {beta}. All substrates, except for CF{sub 2}Cl{sub 2} and CF{sub 2}HCl below 10,000 cm{sup {minus}1}, exhibited that {beta} is independent of energy, i.e. <{Delta}E>{sub all} is linear with energy. The results are interpreted with a simple model which considers that {beta} is a function of the ocillators energy and its vibrational frequency. Limitations of current approximations used in high temperature unimolecular reactions were evaluated and better approximations were developed. The importance of energy transfer in product yields was observed for the photoactivation of perfluorocyclopropene and the photoproduction of difluoroethyne. 3 refs., 18 figs., 4 tabs.

Research Organization:
Iowa Univ., Iowa City, IA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
FG02-87ER13700
OSTI ID:
10134712
Report Number(s):
DOE/ER/13700-T2; ON: DE92010770
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: Mar 1992
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English