RRKM dynamics potential energy surface

Rice et al. [99] developed a global potential energy surface based on the Mowrey et al. [103] results and performed extensive classical trajectory calculations to study the dynamics of the CH2NN02 dissociation reactions. They calculated rates for reactions (III) and (IV) with classical barriers of 35 and 37 kcal/mol, respectively. They found that N-N bond fission dominates at low energy but that HONO elimination is competitive. Chakraborty and Lin [104] predict the opposite on the basis of their ab initio barriers and RRKM theory calculations. The two dissociations channels are closely competitive and it is not clear that ab initio methods are sufficiently reliable to distinguish between two reactions that have such similar energy requirements. Also, the Zhao et al. results [33] are not in accord with the theoretical predictions. 

See, for example, D. L. Bunker, /. Chem. Phys., 40,1946 (1963). Monte Carlo Calculations. IV. Further Studies of Unimolecular Dissociation. D. L. Bunker and M. Pattengill,/. Chem. Phys., 48, 772 (1968). Monte Carlo Calculations. VI. A Re-evaluation erf Ae RRKM Theory of Unimolecular Reaction Rates. W. J. Hase and R. J. Wolf, /. Chem. Phys., 75,3809 (1981). Trajectory Studies of Model HCCH H -P HCC Dissociation. 11. Angular Momenta and Energy Partitioning and the Relation to Non-RRKM Dynamics. D. W. Chandler, W. E. Farneth, and R. N. Zare, J. Chem. Phys., 77, 4447 (1982). A Search for Mode-Selective Chemistry The Unimolecular Dissociation of t-Butyl Hydroperoxide Induced by Vibrational Overtone Excitation. J. A. Syage, P. M. Felker, and A. H. Zewail, /. Chem. Phys., 81, 2233 (1984). Picosecond Dynamics and Photoisomerization of Stilbene in Supersonic Beams. II. Reaction Rates and Potential Energy Surface. D. B. Borchardt and S. H. Bauer, /. Chem. Phys., 85, 4980 (1986). Intramolecular Conversions Over Low Barriers. VII. The Aziridine Inversion—Intrinsically Non-RRKM. A. H. Zewail and R. B. Bernstein,... 

The first of the theoretical chapters (Chapter 9) treats approaches to the calculation of thermal rate constants. The material is familiar—activated complex theory, RRKM theory of unimolecular reaction, Debye theory of diffusion-limited reaction—and emphasizes how much information can be correlated on the basis of quite limited models. In the final chapt, the dynamics of single-collision chemistry is analyzed within a highly simplified framework the model, based on classical mechanics, collinear collision geometries, and naive potential-energy surfaces, illuminates many of the features that account for chemical reactivity. 

There have been a number of theoretical investigations on the CH -I- N2 HCN - - N system due, in part, to its importance in the production of NO in the combustion chemistry of hydrocarbons. It is also interesting from the perspective of electronic structure theory because it involves potential energy surfaces of the doublet and quartet states and spin-orbit coupling connecting these states, and because aspects of dynamics by a generalized transition state theory and a nonadiabatic RRKM theory can be used. 

Static (PES) and kinetic (RRKM) information can be complemented by chemical dynamics simulations, which are able to fill some aspects of gas phase reactivity not considered by the previous approaches. In particular, chemical dynamics can be used to model explicitly the collision between the ion and the target atom and thus it is possible to obtain the energy transferred in the collision and (eventually) the reactions. The molecular system, represented as an ensemble of atoms each bearing a mass i evolves on the Bom-Oppenheimer potential energy surface through Newton s equation of motirais ... 

Additional work needs to be done to develop a theoretical model to represent the trimethylene kinetics. The dynamics in the trimethylene region of the potential energy surface is neither statistical nor direct, and instead contains both these elements. Future work on the kinetics of cyclopropane stereomutation will include developing a theoretical model for trimethylene s dynamics, assessing the accuracy of assuming RRKM dynamics for cyclopropane, and determining a more accurate PES for trimethylene. 

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