Rates of elementary reactions - Measurement and applications

Techniques used for characterizing elementary chemical reaction kinetics are explored. Flash- or laser-photolysis (FP) involves producing reactive species on the psec time scale and monitoring the changes spectroscopically. In the discharge flow (DF) method, reactive species are produced continuously in a flow of an inert gas containing the reactants. FP avoids surface and transport effects, while DF allows several reactions to be studied in different regions of one flow. Transport and surface boundary layer models are defined for DF calculations and sample calculations are carried out to illustrate the difficulties inherent in theoretically defining the rate constants for elementary reactions. Applications of the models thus far derived in atmospheric science and combustion studies are discussed.