Tests of Energy Randomization

The chemical activation method of preparing energized species is partially state selective. As the bimolecular reagents combine, the energy which is released is immediately located in those normal modes close to the site of the reaction. This presumption has been the basis of several classic tests of the rapidity of energy randomization. 

Butler and Kistiakowsky examined the results of producing energized methylcyclopropane by two different routes  

At low total pressures, the adduct isomerizes, several butene isomers being possible products. The relative yields of these isomers following reactions (1.65a) and (1.65b) were compared. Only minor differences were 

A similar but more sensitive test for energy randomization was performed by Rynbrandt and Rabinovitch. Partially deuterated hexafluorobicyclo-propyl (HBC) molecules were prepared in the reactions  

Experiments on vibrational energy relaxation in systems where the dynamics is dominated by the formation of collision complexes provide a rather different test of energy randomization. Recent experiments have demonstrated that the relaxations of O2 by of NO by O and 

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