A QUASI-CLASSICAL TRAJECTORY STUDY OF ENERGY-TRANSFER IN BENZENE-BENZENE COLLISIONS

Collisional energy transfer from large, highly vibrationally excited m olecules has been studied by quasiclassical trajectory calculations an d results for large polyatomic colliders are reported for the first ti me. Highly excited benzene molecules in a thermal bath gas of benzene were investigated using a sum of atom-atom Lennard-Jones interactions for the intermolecular potential. Excellent agreement with experiment has been found for the first moment of energy transfer [Delta E] and i ts energy dependence. [Delta E] is increasing with a slight leveling o ff at high energies. The results suggest that vibrational energy loss of the excited molecule is dominated by V-V transfer. (C) 1996 America n Institute of Physics.