Threshold Energy in the Abstraction Reaction between Hydrogen Atoms and Cyclohexane

Abstract

The reactions of deuterium atoms of selected translational energies with cyclohexane have been investigated. The atoms were generated by the photochemical dissociation of hydrogen halides with a series of effectively monochromatic light sources. The relative probability of atoms undergoing reaction or energy loss on collision with cyclohexane was determined at each initial energy and the phenomenological threshold energy for the abstraction reaction was measured at 36 ± 3 kJ mol–1.