DYNAMICS OF THE LI-2 REACTION - COEXISTENCE OF STATISTICAL AND DIRECTATTRIBUTES(LI)

By using the accurate DMBE III potential energy surface for Li-3, we h ave carried out a detailed dynamics study of the title reaction. Besid es reporting on the effect of translational and vibrational excitation of the reactants, a comparison is also presented for two models for d efining the collision complex. The results support the coexistence of two different types of reaction mechanisms. One, characterized by long -lived trajectories, dominates at low-energy regimes and vibrational e xcitation. The other, mostly associated with direct type trajectories, starts to play a more important role at still reasonably low collisio nal energies, depending on the vibrational state of the reactants. It is also shown that, for initial vibrational excitation of diatomic, sh ort-lived collision complexes can be associated with extensive randomi zation of vibrational energy.