Reactions Involving Highly-Excited Neutral Particles. Hot Atoms

3 Reactions Involving Highly-Excited Neutral Particles. Hot Atoms 

Electronically excited particles on the first, or one of the first levels are of great importance in electric discharge because, as stated above, a great number of excited particles appear to be on very high electronic levels under radiation-chemical conditions. Consider now certain data related mostly to generation of ions in collisions between excited neutral particles and molecules. 

The ionization of highly excited atoms in collisions with neutral particles can have a very large cross section [197]. For instance, the cross section for process Ar + SFq - Ar+ + SFg is 1.7 10 cm at close-to-room temperatures. Of interest is the observed [246] type of reactions involving highly-excited mole cules H.2 + H2 — Hg + H. 

Certain specific features of radiation-chemical reactions have been interpreted assuming a substantial participation of hot atoms, i.e. oFatoms possessing super- 

---