Dynamics of atom recombination and dissociation

There are complex mechanisms which underlie the apparently simple processes of molecular dissociation and radical recombination in dense fluids. In this paper the authors consider aspects such as the role of metastable deep electronic traps and electronic surface hopping. The result is an analytic model which predicts trap lifetimes and bimolecular recombination rates of iodine over a range of fluid densities from low density gas phase to liquids under high pressure. The inputs into the model are simply the potential surfaces and the friction which governs the motion of an isolated atom in the fluid.