Recombination of oxygen and nitrogen atoms

Recombination of Oxygen and Nitrogen Atoms on Silica and High-Temperature Coating Materials... 

Similarly, we used the method of semiconductor sensors (SS) to study heterogeneous recombination of NH2 and NH radicals [2, 3], as well as hydrogen [4], oxygen [5], and nitrogen [6] atoms. 

The termination step is the recombination of oxygen atoms, which is step 2. The rate of recombination of nitrogen atoms and the reaction of nitrogen and oxygen atoms are negligible because of the very low concentration of nitrogen atoms. The initiation and termination are assumed to be very rapid compared to the propagation step, so a pseudo-steady-state concentration is reached ... 

The result is that for minimum activation energy, the bond YZ must be stretched and weakened before the final bond XY is established. Quantitative calculations show that the activation energy evaluated in this manner amounts, at the most, to 7 % of the bond energy YZ. In accordance with this theory, recombinations of atoms of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, chlorine on metal surfaces... 

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