REACTIVE SCATTERING OF CN-2 - THE STEREODYNAMICS(D)

The title reaction was studied in a crossed-beam apparatus. The depend encies of both integral and doubly differential cross sections on the initial collision energies were measured. From the appearance of the e xcitation function, a barrier height of similar to 3 kcal/mol was dedu ced, which is lower than the currently accepted value by as much as 1 kcal/mol. Both the product speed and angle distributions show an anoma lous dependence on the initial collision energies. These results can b e reconciled by taking into account the steric effects and the adiabat icity between CN rotation and HCN bend.