Association reactions of nickel atoms with carbon monoxide and alkenes at room temperature: binding energy of NiC 2H 4

Abstract

We report a kinetic study of association reactions of nickel atoms with carbon monoxide, ethene, propene and 1-butene in carbon dioxide buffer gas in the pressure range 1–600 Torr at 296 K. RRKM theory is used together with results of previous ab initio electronic structure calculations to interpret association rate coefficients in terms of binding energies of 1:1 complexes. The binding energy of NiC 2H 4 at 0 K is estimated as 35.5±5 kcal mol −1. The role of excited electronic states of the complexes in the association reactions is briefly discussed.