Vibrational energy transfer. Collisional quenching of competitive unimolecular reactions

Abstract

A technique is described for the study of collisional deexcitation of highly vibrationally excited polyatomic molecules by use of externally activated competitive unimolecular reaction systems. This method has some advantages and is illustrated by the decomposition of chemically activated hexyl-3 radicals in the presence of H2 and CF4 as heat bath molecules. The former removes ~1.2 kcal mole−1 per successful collision; while for the latter a value in excess of 4.6 kcal is found so that CF4 behaves operationally like a strong collider.