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The rate of destruction of O 2 ( 1 Δg) by atomic hydrogen
Author(s) -
Schofield Keith
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
international journal of chemical kinetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.341
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1097-4601
pISSN - 0538-8066
DOI - 10.1002/kin.550040302
Subject(s) - chemistry , excited state , hydrogen , slowness , atomic physics , ground state , work (physics) , reaction rate , analytical chemistry (journal) , thermodynamics , physics , environmental chemistry , catalysis , biochemistry , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics
An analysis of the atmospheric observations of O 2 ( 1 δ g ) in the dayglow and twilight confirms the crude experimental assessments of Brown [1] and the conclusions that can be made from recent work of Westenberg, Roscoe, and DeHaas [2] that the reaction\documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$${\rm H} + {\rm O}_{\rm 2} (^1 \Delta g) \to {\rm OH} + {\rm O}$$\end{document} is relatively slow, much slower than was expected or can be explained easily in theoretical terms. Using a value for the concentration of atomic hydrogen at 85 km, an upper limit rate of 3×10 −13 cm 3 molecule −1 sec −1 would be compatible with current atmospheric models. An evaluation of the available data for the rates of several reactions involving ground state or electronically excited species, for which the values are reasonably well established, is included to better analyze the general effects of an electronically excited reactant. This further illustrates the unusual slowness of the H + O 2 ( 1 Δ g ) reaction.