Abstract
The effects of features in the potential energy surface on the collinear H+H2 reaction rate coefficient are investigated by the method of quantum functional sensitivity analysis (QFSA). The calculations use QFSA to connect features in the microscopic realm, with their response upon macroscopic quantities of chemical interest, via the intermediary sensitivities of the reactive transition probabilities. While the sensitivities of the individual transition probabilities show considerable structure, there is an attendant loss of structure in the rate coefficient sensitivities because of the thermal averaging. For the range of temperatures used in our study (200-2400 K), the most important region of the potential energy surface is found to be not at the top of the barrier, but rather at the lower energy shoulders of the barrier. There are also regions near the barrier where an increase in the potential surface actually increases the reaction rate! The effects of using different underlying potentials [the Porter-Karplus (PK2), Liu-Siegbahn-Truhlar-Horowitz (LSTH), and double many-body expansion (DMBE) surfaces] on the nature of the results were also compared. The absolute sensitivity magnitudes on the PK2 surface vary considerably from the other two, but the relative change in the rate coefficient is about the same on all three surfaces. Furthermore, the identified regions of importance on the potential surfaces remain essentially the same. The reactive scattering calculations were performed with the log-derivative version of the Kohn variational principle.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 3523-3530 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | The Journal of chemical physics |
Volume | 96 |
Issue number | 5 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1992 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Physics and Astronomy
- Physical and Theoretical Chemistry