Trajectory Studies of Atomic Recombination Reactions. VI. Recombination of Oxygen Atoms in Argon

Abstract

The recombination of oxygen in large excess of argon has been studied between 300 and 10 000 °K by trajectory calculations. Reasonable agreement between the computed results and the experimental rate data was obtained by assuming that the interaction between oxygen and argon atoms was 0.3 kcal/mol. The present calculation also showed that the radical-molecule-complex mechanism was the major route to recombination below 1000 °K. At higher temperatures, the energy-transfer mechanism predominated. The vibrational and rotational energy distributions of the nascent product from the energy-transfer mechanism at 10 000 °K were found to be much broader than that from the radical-molecule-complex mechanism at 300 °K. However, the total energy distributions of the nascent product, if expressed in units of kT, were similar in both cases.