Products' translational energy and c.m. angular distribution vs collision energy for the Rb + CH3I reaction

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Abstract
An analysis has been made of the laboratory angular distributions of RbI from the crossed beam reaction of Rb with CH3I obtained by Litvak et al. over the range of relative translational energy, Ē, from 2.8 to 36.6 kcal mol−1. Although velocity analysis data were not available, the product flux distributions contain sufficient information to allow deduction of the essential features of the center‐of‐mass (c.m.) angular and recoil energy distributions, with the assumption that they are uncoupled. The c.m. differential (solid angle) reaction cross section is found to be ``backward‐peaked'' at low energies, shifting ``forward'' with increasing Ē. The deduced product recoil energy distribution is consistent with the results of previous velocity analysis experiments at low Ē for the reactions of both Rb and K with CH3I. The average translational energy of the products, Ē′, increases approximately linearly with increasing collision energy: Ē′ ≃ 15 + 0.5 Ē (in kcal mol−1). The intercept is in good agreement with the impulsive photodissociation model of Herschbach.