Chemistry of recoil tritium atoms. Part 2.—Relative energies of hot atom reactions

Abstract

The kinetic theory of Estrup and Wolfgang is extended to estimate the relative energy range of recoil tritium hot-atom reactions. Maximum and minimum values of K the energy shadowing integral can be calculated and a parameter R is introduced which indicates, as it varies from 0 to 1 whether the product is formed by high or low energy “hot” atoms. Whilst results from oxygen and bromine scavenged (or helium and non-helium moderated) systems do not agree as to which is the “high energy” product, (HT or labelled parent hydrocarbon) each hot product is produced by recoil atoms with different amounts of excess energy.