Generalized transition state theory. Quantum effects for collinear reactions of hydrogen molecules and isotopically substituted hydrogen molecules

Abstract

Canonical variational transition state theory, microcanonical variational transition state theory, and Miller's unified statistical theory were used in an attempt to correct two major deficiencies of the conventional transition state theory. These are: (1) the necessity of extra assumptions to include quantum mechanical tunneling effects and (2) the fundamental assumption that trajectories crossing a dividing surface in phase space proceed directly to products. The accuracy of these approximate methods were tested by performing calculations for several collinear reactions of hydrogen, deuterium, chlorine, or iodine, with five isotopes of hydrogen molecules and comparison of these results with those from accurate quantitative calculations of the reaction probabilities as functions of energy and of the thermal rate constants as functions of temperature. 49 references, 28 figures, 17 tables.