Role of angular momentum in statistical unimolecular rate theory

Quantum versus classical unimolecular fragmentation rate constants and activation energies at finite temperature from direct dynamics simulations

In the present work, we investigate how nuclear quantum effects modify the temperature dependent rate constants and, consequently, the activation energies in unimolecular reactions. In the reactions under study, nuclear quantum effects mainly stem from the presence of a large zero point energy. Thus, we investigate the behavior of methods compatible with direct dynamics simulations, the quantum thermal bath (QTB) and ring polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD). To this end, we first compare them with quantum reaction theory for a model Morse potential before extending this comparison to molecular models. Our results show that, in particular in the temperature range comparable with or lower than the zero point energy of the system, the RPMD method is able to correctly capture nuclear quantum effects on rate constants and activation energies. On the other hand, although the QTB provides a good description of equilibrium properties including zero-point energy effects, it largely overestimates the rate constants. The origin of the different behaviours is in the different distance distributions provided by the two methods and in particular how they differently describe the tails of such distributions. The comparison with transition state theory shows that RPMD can be used to study fragmentation of complex systems for which it may be difficult to determine the multiple reaction pathways and associated transition states.

Data-Inspired and Physics-Driven Model Reduction for Dissociation: Application to the O2 + O System

This work presents an in-depth discussion on the nonequilibrium dissociation of O₂ molecules colliding with O atoms, combining quasi-classical trajectory calculations, master equation, and dimensionality reduction. A rovibrationally resolved database for all of the elementary collisional processes is constructed by including all nine adiabatic electronic states of O₃ in the QCT calculations. A detailed analysis of the ab initio data set reveals that for a rovibrational level, the probability of dissociating is mostly dictated by its deficit in internal energy compared to the centrifugal barrier. Because of the assumption of rotational equilibrium, the conventional vibrational-specific calculations fail to characterize such a dependence. Based on this observation, a new physics-based grouping strategy for application to coarse-grained models is proposed. By relying on a hybrid technique made of rovibrationally resolved excitation coupled to coarse-grained dissociation, the new approach is compared to the vibrational-specific model and the direct solution of the rovibrational state-to-state master equation. Simulations are performed in a zero-dimensional isothermal and isochoric chemical reactor for a wide range of temperatures (1500-20,000 K). The study shows that the main contribution to the model inadequacy of vibrational-specific approaches originates from the incapability of characterizing dissociation, rather than the energy transfers. Even when constructed with only twenty groups, the new reduced-order model outperforms the vibrational-specific one in predicting all of the QoIs related to dissociation kinetics. At the highest temperature, the accuracy in the mole fraction is improved by 2000%.

Pressure-Dependent Rate Constant Caused by Tunneling Effects: OH + HNO3 as an Example

Tunneling effects on chemical reactions are well-known and have been unambiguously demonstrated by processes that involve the motion of hydrogen atoms at low temperature. However, the process by which tunneling effects cause a falloff curve (i.e., how reaction rate constants depend on pressure) has apparently not been previously documented. This work points out that falloff curves can indeed be caused by tunneling and explains the effect in simple terms. This is an interesting feature of quantum tunneling, which can appear in low temperature chemistry (such as in atmospheric or interstellar environments). In this Letter, we use high-level coupled-cluster calculations in combination with master-equation methods on the well-studied reaction of OH with HNO₃, which plays an important role in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Our results in combination with available experimental data clearly demonstrate that the tunneling correction depends on not just temperature, but also pressure.

Long-range transition state theory

The implementation of variational transition state theory (VTST) for long-range asymptotic potential forms is considered, with particular emphasis on the energy and total angular momentum resolved (microJ-VTST) implementation. A long-range transition state approximation yields a remarkably simple and universal description of the kinetics of reactions governed by long-range interactions. The resulting (microJ-VTST) implementation is shown to yield capture-rate coefficients that compare favorably with those from trajectory simulations (deviating by less than 10%) for a wide variety of neutral and ionic long-range potential forms. Simple analytic results are derived for many of these cases. A brief comparison with a variety of low-temperature experimental studies illustrates the power of this approach as an analysis tool. The present VTST approach allows for a simple analysis of the applicability conditions for some related theoretical approaches. It also provides an estimate of the temperature or energy at which the "long-range transition state" moves to such short separations that short-range effects, such as chemical bonding, steric repulsion, and electronic state selectivity, must be considered.

Treatment of the K-quantum number in unimolecular reaction theory: insights from product correlations

The connection between the K-quantum number and product correlations in the barrierless unimolecular dissociation of symmetric-top molecules is explored to establish a qualitative diagnostic for the treatment of the K-rotor dynamics in unimolecular reaction theory. We find that fragment scalar and vector correlations can provide guidance in this matter, and the photodissociation dynamics of thermal NCNO to form CN and NO at several dissociation wavelengths are presented to demonstrate the utility of this approach. The "goodness" of the K-quantum number can be related to the amount of energy in the conserved vibrational modes at the inner transition state. On the basis of measured correlated vibrational distributions, the K-quantum number is found to be approximately conserved at the inner transition state for the photodissociation of NCNO at 514, 520, and 526 nm. The methodology, involving a comparison of product distributions from the photodissociation of jet and thermal ensembles at identical wavelengths, is general and may be applied to previously studied systems that dissociate along barrierless potential energy surfaces, CF(3)NO and CH(2)CO. In addition, vector correlations serve as a means to probe the K-mixing at the outer transition state, and measured v-j correlations in the photodissociation of thermal NCNO are presented.