A combined crossed molecular beam and quasiclassical trajectory study of the Titan-relevant N(2D) + D2O reaction

Abstract

Following a recent investigation on the N(2D) + H2O reaction [Homayoon et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 5, 3508 (2014)], we report on an experimental and theoretical study of the isotopologue N(2D) + D2O reaction. Crossed molecular beam (CMB) experiments were conducted at a collision energy of 10.3 kcal mol–1. Quasiclassical trajectory calculations were performed on a recent potential energy surface to derive the centre-of-mass functions necessary to simulate the CMB laboratory distributions. Excellent agreement was found. The importance of the channel leading to HON/DON was confirmed. The inclusion of this channel, in addition to that leading to the isomer HNO/DNO, can affect the models considering the coupling between nitrogen and oxygen chemistry in the upper atmosphere of Titan.