Nonthermal rate constants for CH4 * + X → CH3 + HX, X = H, O, OH, and O2.

Abstract

Quasiclassical trajectories are used to compute nonthermal rate constants, k*, for abstraction reactions involving highly-excited methane CH4 * and the radicals H, O, OH, and O2. Several temperatures and internal energies of methane, Evib, are considered, and significant nonthermal rate enhancements for large Evib are found. Specifically, when CH4 * is internally excited close to its dissociation threshold (Evib ≈ D0 = 104 kcal/mol), its reactivity with H, O, and OH is shown to be collision-rate-limited and to approach that of comparably-sized radicals, such as CH3, with k* > 10-10 cm3 molecule-1 s-1. Rate constants this large are more typically associated with barrierless reactions, and at 1000 K, this represents a nonthermal rate enhancement, k*/k, of more than two orders of magnitude relative to thermal rate constants k. We show that large nonthermal rate constants persist even after significant internal cooling, with k*/k > 10 down to Evib ≈ D0/4. The competition between collisional cooling and nonthermal reactivity is studied using a simple model, and nonthermal reactions are shown to account for up to 35%-50% of the fate of the products of H + CH3 = CH4 * under conditions of practical relevance to combustion. Finally, the accuracy of an effective temperature model for estimating k* from k is quantified.