Low-temperature reactions: Tunnelling in space.

Ian R Sims (1)

1 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes

Chemical reactions with activation barriers generally slow to a halt in the extreme cold of dense interstellar clouds. Low-temperature experiments on the reaction of OH with methanol have now shown that below 200 K there is a major acceleration in the rate that can only be explained by enhanced quantum mechanical tunnelling through the barrier.

Domaines: Biophysique

Ian R Sims. Low-temperature reactions: Tunnelling in space.. Nature Chemistry, 2013, 5 (9), pp.734-6. ⟨10.1038/nchem.1736⟩. ⟨hal-00861344⟩