FROM TIME-DEPENDENT REACTIVITY TO DISPERSIVE KINETICS

Chemical reactions, by their very nature, are expected to perturbate the distribution in reactivity of reactants during the reaction course. The extent of perturbation depends upon the relative magnitudes of the rates of chemical reactions and the rates of internal rearrangements needed to preserve reactant reactivity distribution in the system. Systems with suppressed internal rearrangements are depleted from more reactive species during the reaction course and, therefore, display the time-dependent reactivity. Interpretation of the time-dependent reactivity in terms of activation energy distribution for reactions, dispersive kinetics, makes the low-temperature studies on reactivity of radiation produced species more than complementary to those by pulse techniques.