This research, part of the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program, utilizes laser techniques to understand the detailed processes in chemical reactions. The data obtained in these studies will elucidate the mechanisms of elementary chemical reactions, the vibrational and rotational excitation of the chemical products, and the barriers to chemical elementary chemical reactions. Supersonic beams will collide with atoms causing chemical reactions. Laser techniques will be used to prepared the reactants with varying amounts of internal (vibrational and rotational) and translational energies. The nascent vibrational and rotational energy distribution of the products of these reactions will be studied as a function of initial energy distributions of the reactant molecules, using laser techniques. These data will be collected at energies up to the dissociation energy of the reactants. Reactions involving the species NCNO, CN, ketene, ICN, 2-methyl-2-nitrosopropane and nitrogen dioxide are included in the systems to be studied.
