This course addresses results of dynamics calculations on molecule-surface reactions, based on recent papers from the scientific literature. Where possible, a comparison is made with experiment. Subjects include: the effect of the collision energy and the initial vibrational state of the reacting molecule on the dissociative chemisorption of a diatomic molecule (H2) and a polyatomic molecule (CH4), the effect of ‘alignment’ and ‘orientation’ on the dissociative chemisorption of diatomic molecules (H2 and NO), and the final state distribution in Eley-Rideal reactions.
This course will not be given in the course year 2010-2011