The Transition State: A Theoretical Approach Edited by Takayuki Fueno (Osaka University and Aichi Institute of Technology). Kodansha: Tokyo and Gordon Breach Publishers: Amsterdam. 1999. xvi + 328 pp. $120.00. ISBN 90-5699-216-3

Abstract

The transition state is the critical configuration of a reaction system situated at the highest point of the most favorable reaction path on the potential-energy surface, its characteristics governing the dynamic behavior of reacting systems decisively. This text presents an accurate survey of current theoretical investigations of chemical reactions, with a focus on the nature of the transition state. Its scope ranges from general basic theories associated with the transition states, to their computer-assisted applications, through to a number of reactions in a state-of-the-art fashion. It covers various types of gas-phase elementary reactions, as well as some specific types of chemical processes taking place in the liquid phase. Also investigated is the recently developing transition state spectroscopy. Chapter 1. Introduction; Chapter 2. Determination of Transition State Structures on Potential Energy Surfaces; Chapter 3. Molecular Symmetry and Transition State; Chapter 4. Transition State Theoretical Calculations of the Canonical Rate Constants for Bimolecular Reactions; Chapter 5. Development of the Microcanonical Statistical Rate Theory for Unimolecular Reactions; Chapter 6. Intracluster Reaction Dynamics of Ar{sub 4}{sup +}; Chapter 7. Transition State for Chemical Reactions in Solution; Chapter 8. Structures and Reactions of Compounds Containing Heavier Main Group Elements; Chapter 9. Transition States in Organometallicmore » Reactions; Chapter 10. Chemical Reaction Dynamics and Potential Ridge: Beyond the Transition State; Chapter 11. Differential Geometry in Chemical Reaction Dynamics; Chapter 12. Toward Transition State Spectroscopy: Experimental Approaches Using Weakly Bonded Clusters; Chapter 13. Relativistic Effects on Transition State Structures and Properties: Transition State Spectroscopy of IHI and BrHI; Chapter 14. A Time-Dependent Theoretical Approach to Transition State Spectroscopy; Chapter 15. Scattering Theory for Photodetachment and Molecular Dissociation as a Direct Probe of Transition State.« less