Internal energy randomisation in weak-collision unimolecular reaction systems

Abstract

We examine the conjecture that the principal difference between weak-collision and strong-collision behaviour in thermal unimolecular reaction systems arises from a difference in internal energy randomisation rates. To do this, we solve analytically the strong-collision master equation for a thermal unimolecular reaction including explicit allowance for the randomisation processes, and we show that all weak-collision effects so far observed in thermal systems can be accommodated within this framework.In an appendix, we give the extension of this analytic solution for reactions yielding two (or more) distinct sets of products.