Energy dependence of the rate constant for the reaction O++ NO → NO++ O

The energy dependence of the exothermic charge transfer reaction of O+ with NO, which is known to be anomalously slow at thermal energies, has been investigated with a new flow-drift tube apparatus. With increasing O+ kinetic energy in the center of mass the rate constant increases from an upper limit of 8 × 10−13 cm³ s−1 at thermal energy to 2 × 10−10 cm³ s−1 at 4 eV.