Issue 43, 2011

Dynamics of reactions between two closed-shell molecules

Abstract

The crossed molecular beam technique has been utilized to investigate a large number of elementary reactions. However, most of the studied reactions involve atoms or radicals; reactions between two stable molecular reactants are, in fact, seldom studied with the crossed molecular beam method. In this perspective, reactions between two stable molecules are reviewed and discussed. With crossed molecular beams and vacuum UV photoionization, the nascent products have been unambiguously identified. Consistent pictures of the reaction paths have been constructed based on the experimental data and ab initio calculations. Furthermore, there are intriguing features about the reaction barriers. The F2 + organosulfur reactions are barrierless, demonstrating the first examples of such interactions between two closed-shell reactants. The barrier of F2 + alkene reaction decreases with more methyl substitution groups at the C[double bond, length as m-dash]C double bond, yet the absolute barrier heights from experiment and theory disagree with each other by ∼2 kcal mol−1, leaving an issue to be resolved in the future.

Graphical abstract: Dynamics of reactions between two closed-shell molecules

Article information

Article type
Perspective
Submitted
15 Jul 2011
Accepted
06 Sep 2011
First published
29 Sep 2011

Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011,13, 19206-19213

Dynamics of reactions between two closed-shell molecules

J. J. Lin, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, 13, 19206 DOI: 10.1039/C1CP22305D

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