Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel

The existence of the polyad number as a bottleneck to energy flow on short time scales is potentially important for efforts to control molecnlar reactivity rising advanced laser techniqnes, discussed below in section Al.2.20. Efforts at control seek to intervene in the molecnlar dynamics to prevent the effects of widespread vibrational energy flow, the presence of which is one of the key assumptions of Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcns (RRKM) and other theories of reaction dynamics [6]. 

In the statistical description of ununolecular kinetics, known as Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM) theory [4,7,8], it is assumed that complete IVR occurs on a timescale much shorter than that for the unimolecular reaction [9]. Furdiemiore, to identify states of the system as those for the reactant, a dividing surface [10], called a transition state, is placed at the potential energy barrier region of the potential energy surface. The assumption implicit m RRKM theory is described in the next section. 

Klippenstein S J 1992 Variational optimizations in the Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus theory calculations for unimolecular dissociations with no reverse barrier J. Chem. Rhys. 96 367-71... 

Marcus developed a quantum mechanical formulation of Kassel-Rice-Ramsperger theories in which zero point energies have been taken into account (see flow chart). However, due to lack of data for individual molecules it is difficult to apply the theory of Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM)... 

Taking AH/(CH2) equal to 80 kcal. and AHf ( CH2CH2CH2 ) equal to 67 kcal.,11 18 formation of the trimethylene diradical by reaction of CH2 + H2C=CH2 is exothermic by 25.5 kcal. From the Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel relation... 

For the rigid entrance/rigid exit complex-forming bimolecular reaction HO + CO — H + CO2, which passes through HOCO, a separated-step conventional Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM) treatment extremely well reproduces the experimental temperature and pressure dependences of this four-atom system. 

Rabinovitch et al. (85) studied the reaction of H atoms with trans-ethylene-d2 as a function of ethylene pressure in the temperature range — 78 to 160°C. They were able to account for all secondary reactions of the hot ethyl radicals and to determine the rates of their decomposition (relative to stablization). Simultaneously they calculated the theoretical rates on the basis of the Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel theory of uni-molecular reactions, using expressions derived by Marcus (71), and found a reasonable agreement with the experimental values. Similar satisfactory agreements had been found previously by Rabinovitch and Die-sen (84) for hot sec-butyl radicals. Extensive studies of hot radicals produced by H or D atom additions to various olefins have been carried... 

Nevertheless, predissociation in polyatomic molecules can be visualized as qualitatively similar to a unimolecular reaction in the Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel sense. With diatomic molecules possessing only one degree of vibrational freedom,... 

Marcus is a coauthor of the Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus theory of molecular reactions. However, his theoretical work in the 1950s on electron transfer reactions started him on his pathway to eminence. Back then, chemists knew electron-transfer processes were occurring during chemical reactions, but they had no way to predict the speed of a reaction or to develop strategic chemical experiments. In addition, some reactions that were predicted to proceed rapidly instead poked along at a snail s pace. 

The RRKM (after Rice, Ramsperger, Kassel, and Marcus) theory is, basically, transition-state theory (see, in particular, the description in Section 6.2) applied to a unimolecular reaction. Thus, one focuses on the activated complex... 

In more detail, our approach can be briefly summarized as follows gas-phase reactions, surface structures, and gas-surface reactions are treated at an ab initio level, using either cluster or periodic (plane-wave) calculations for surface structures, when appropriate. The results of these calculations are used to calculate reaction rate constants within the transition state (TS) or Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM) theory for bimolecular gas-phase reactions or unimolecular and surface reactions, respectively. The structure and energy characteristics of various surface groups can also be extracted from the results of ab initio calculations. Based on these results, a chemical mechanism can be constructed for both gas-phase reactions and surface growth. The film growth process is modeled within the kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) approach, which provides an effective separation of fast and slow processes on an atomistic scale. The results of Monte Carlo (MC) simulations can be used in kinetic modeling based on formal chemical kinetics. 

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