Collisional Energy Exchange in Polyatomic Molecules.

Abstract

Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FTIS) has been used to study several kinds of gas-gas and gas-surface collision processes brought about with and in supersonic free jets in vacuo. Following are some key results: (1) Terminal distributions of rotational energy in free jets of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide show a non-Boltzmann distribution that can be characterized by a two-temperature model and explained in terms of competition between rotation-rotation and rotation translation transfers. (2) Spectra of CO2 molecules excited by collisions with nitrogen molecules indicated similar two-temperature distributions, possibly due to secondary collisions between excited CO2 and N2. (3) The accommodation of vibrational and rotational energy during collisions between CO, CO2 and NO molecules and hot platinum surfaces has been determined over a range of surface temperatures. (4) Excess internal energies have been determined in nascent CO and CO2 molecules formed respectively by catalytic oxidation of C and CO on a platinum surface. An energy balance indicates that about 1/3 of the available reaction energy is absorbed by the surface, the remainder going mostly into vibrational modes of product molecules.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 30, 1983
Accession Number
ADA147710

Entities

People

  • J. B. Fenn
  • S. B. Ryali

Organizations

  • Yale University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Carbon Dioxide
  • Carbon Monoxide
  • Catalytic Oxidation
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Classification
  • Collisions
  • Contracts
  • Dielectric Gases
  • Elements
  • Energy
  • Energy Transfer
  • Gases
  • Molecules
  • Polyatomic Molecules
  • Security
  • Spectrometry

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Electrochemical Engineering/ Fuel Cell Technologies
  • Molecular Photonics/Laser Physics

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flight