Activation barriers for series of exothermic homologous reactions. II. Reactions of s1 metal atoms with N2O

We recently showed [J. Chem. Phys. 95, 8065 (1991)] that the activation barriers of reactions between ground state metal atoms and N2O correlate with the s-p promotion energies plus the ionization potentials of the metal atoms. A semiempirical calculation method was developed there to interpret these observations. However, the treatment of the alkali metals required an ad hoc assumption. It is shown here that, by considering interaction potentials as functions of the distances between the metal and oxygen atoms, agreement between theory and experiment is obtained without any such hypothesis.