Experimental and theoretical angular and translational energy distributions for the reaction CN+D-2->DCN+D

This paper presents new measurements of angular and translational energy distributions for the title reaction at a reagent kinetic energy of 5.8 kcal/mol, and compares them with the corresponding results from quasiclassical trajectory calculations based on an accurate global potential energy surface. The comparison of theory and experiment is generally good; however, the minor deviations that we find provide valuable information concerning errors in the potential energy surface. Both experiment and theory indicate that CN+D-2 is a simple abstraction reaction, with predominantly backward-scattered angular distributions and about 37% of the available energy ending up in product translation. Strong dependence of the calculated angular and translational energy distributions on reagent kinetic energy is noted. (C) 1997 American Institue of Physics.