Chemical Dynamics; Molecular Beam Scattering, Infrared Chemiluminescence, and Transition State Spectroscopy

Abstract

This review provides an overview of some
central concepts and techniques of chemical dynamics,
the subfield of chemical kinetics devoted to the study of
molecular rate processes at the level of atomic motions.
Specifically, reviews are given of the experimental
methods of molecular beam scattering, which aims at
inferring what occurs during a reactive collision from
the post collision attributes of the products; infrared
chemiluminescence, which provides the rotational and
vibrational state distributions of the nascent products;
and transition state spectroscopy which in the most
favorable cases can provide “movies†of systems as they
pass from reactants to products.