Gas phase reactive collisions, experimental approach

Abstract

Abstract. Since 1937 when the first molecule in space has been identified, more than 150 molecules have been detected. Understanding the fate of these molecules requires having a perfect view of their photochemistry and reactivity with other partners. It is then crucial to identify the main processes that will produce and destroy them. In this chapter, a general view of experimental techniques able to deliver gas phase chemical kinetics data at low and very low temperatures will be presented. These techniques apply to the study of reactions between neutral reactants on the one hand and reactions involving charge species on the other hand.

Production of cold beams of ND3 with variable rotational state distributions by electrostatic extraction of He and Ne buffer-gas-cooled beams

“…A detailed understanding of how low-temperature rates are affected by the internal energy distributions of the reacting species is required for accurate models of the cold chemistry that occurs in the ISM. 7 Rotationally state-selected ion-dipole reactions have been studied theoretically using, for example, rotationally adiabatic capture theory. 8 This model predicts that for neutral molecules with a strong dipole, the state-specific rate constants increase significantly for the lowest J states of the neutral species (particularly from J = 3 down to J = 0) at a given translational temperature.…”