The dynamics of the reaction H+3+D2→HD+2+H2, and the effects of reactant vibrational excitation on the product energy and angle distributions

The dependence of the absolute total cross section and the product ion kinetic energy distribution on the reactant kinetic energy have been measured for the reaction H+3+D2→HD+2+H2 over the energy range from 0.002 to 11 eV, by means of the merged molecular beam technique. At low collision energies, the reaction occurs with high probability per close collision, and at all collision energies the product ion is scattered preferentially in the direction of the D2 reactant in center-of-mass coordinates. Because the reactants in these experiments are vibrationally excited, comparison of the present results with the crossed-beam data of M. L. Vestal, C. R. Blakly, P. W. Ryan, and J. H. Futrell [J. Chem. Phys. 64, 2094 (1976)] reveals the influence of reactant vibration on the reaction dynamics.