termolecular transformations tagged posts

Ephemeral collision complexes mediate chemically termolecular transformations that affect system chemistry. Nature Chemistry, 2017; DOI: 10.1038/nchem.2842

Finding opens door to innumerable possibilities, from new engine types to planetary chemistry for cloud formations, climate change, and the conditions for creating life. A new study led by Michael P. Burke, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Columbia Engineering, has identified the significance of a new class of chemical reactions involving 3 molecules that each participate in the breaking and forming of chemical bonds. The reaction of 3 different molecules is enabled by an “ephemeral collision complex,” formed from the collision of 2 molecules, which lives long enough to collide with a third molecule.

This fourth class, w...