A Steady-State Approximation to the Two-Dimensional Master Equation for Chemical Kinetics Calculations

In the field of chemical kinetics, the solution of a two-dimensional master equation that depends explicitly on both total internal energy (E) and total angular momentum (J) is a challenging problem. In this work, a weak-E/fixed-J collisional model (i.e., weak-collisional internal energy relaxation/free-collisional angular momentum relaxation) is used along with the steady-state approach to solve the resulting (simplified) two-dimensional (E,J)-grained master equation. The corresponding solutions give thermal rate constants and product branching ratios as functions of both temperature and pressure. We also have developed a program that can be used to predict and analyze experimental chemical kinetics results. This expedient technique, when combined with highly accurate potential energy surfaces, is cable of providing results that may be meaningfully compared to experiments. The reaction of singlet oxygen with methane proceeding through vibrationally excited methanol is used as an illustrative example.