Estimates for collision-induced dissociation rates

Collision-induced dissociation rates for diatomic and triatomic molecules are estimated from a version of the available energy theory. The collision is assumed to excite one mode of internal momentum in an unbounded Boltzmann distribution, and the number of energy modes used in the dissociation process is taken to be the number of internal modes that disappear when the molecule breaks apart. This simple model is found to deviate from available experimental data generally no more than a factor of 10 over a wide range of temperature and for a wide variety of collision partners.