Electron–Ion and Ion–Ion Dissociative Recombination of Oxygen. I. Electron–Ion Recombination

The rate coefficient for electron–molecular‐oxygen‐ion recombination is calculated quantum mechanically. The quantum treatment due to Warke is presented in detail. A simple one‐electron model is used. The positive molecular ion is approximated by a rotating dumbbell consisting of $\mathrm{O}{(}^3\mathrm{P)}$ and ${\mathrm{O}}^{+}{(}^4\mathrm{S)}$ , and the electron–atomic oxygen interaction is treated as the perturbation for the recombination process. In the one‐electron approximation, only six final continuum states are possible. By assuming that one of them, the repulsive ${}^1{\Sigma }_g^{+}$ of O + O, crosses at the ground vibrational state of O₂⁺, the overlap integrals are then carried out. The calculated rate coefficient, ${\text{α\hspace{0.17em}=\hspace{0.17em}(2.8\hspace{0.17em}±\hspace{0.17em}0.2)\hspace{0.17em}×\hspace{0.17em}10}}^{\text{−7}}{\mathrm{cm}}^3\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}/\hspace{0.17em}}\sec$ at $\text{T\hspace{0.17em}=\hspace{0.17em}300°K}$ , is close to the experimental results ${\alpha }^{\mathrm{exptl}}{\text{\hspace{0.17em}=\hspace{0.17em}(2.2\hspace{0.17em}±\hspace{0.17em}0.4)\hspace{0.17em}×\hspace{0.17em}10}}^{\text{−7}}{\mathrm{cm}}^3\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}/\hspace{0.17em}}\sec$ .