Dynamics of CO2+−D2 collisions

Abstract

We have measured complete velocity vector distributions for several of the products of collisions between CO2+ and D2. The reactions CO2+(D2,D)DCO2+ and CO2+(D2,OD)DCO+ are the principal chemical processes in the range of relative energies from 1 to 15 eV. The former proceeds principally by a direct interaction mechanism, with some smaller contribution from the decay of a D2CO2+ persistent complex. The DCO+ appears to come exclusively from the decay of this persistent complex at low relative energies, and from a complicated direct interaction process at very high energies. Other energetically accessible products such as CO+, O+, D2O+, and OD+ prove to be of minor or no importance.