On the dynamics of the associative desorption of H2

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Abstract
The dynamics of activated associative desorption is discussed with particular reference to the system H2–Cu and to the partitioning of the energy released among the various product degrees of freedom. It is argued that a simple theory based on transition-state concepts should hold for this system because the potential energy surface (PES) divides naturally into reactant and product regions, separated by a ‘‘seam’’ or ‘‘ridge’’ at which it is reasonable to assume a thermal distribution of desorbing trajectories. Using a PES constructed in accordance with available electronic structure calculations we consider the angular distributions and translational, vibrational, and rotational energy distributions of the desorbing molecules. It is shown that, whereas the rotational energy reflects the surface temperature, the vibrational energy is markedly enhanced because the energetically low-lying regions of the ridge in the PES correspond to an H–H bond distance that is distended as compared with the gas-phase equilibrium separation. The enhancement is found to be a strong function of the surface temperature. The translational energy, however, is found to be only very weakly dependent on the temperature. These results are discussed in connection with available data.

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