100 years of the Lindemann mechanism
This Faraday Discussion will be a hybrid event, allowing participation both in person and online.
Welcome
Join us in Oxford, or online, in 2022 for this latest addition to our Faraday Discussion series. For over 100 years and 300 meetings, Faraday Discussions have been the forefront of physical chemistry, and many of these Discussions have become landmark meetings in their field. The unique format of the Faraday Discussions allows for in-depth discussions and opportunities to establish new collaborations.The original Lindemann mechanism of unimolecular reactions was proposed at a Faraday Discussion, published in 1922, during an exchange between Lindemann and other leading figures of reaction rate theory (Arrhenius, Langmuir, Perrin) and it is therefore fitting that the current state of the field should be examined a century later in 2022.
This meeting is for established and early-career scientists, post-graduate students and industrial researchers interested in kinetics and dynamics, both experimental and theoretical, working on gas- and liquid-phase unimolecular reactions. Oral and poster presentation opportunities are available to all these groups, and we invite you to submit an oral or poster abstract to make your contribution alongside leaders in the field. Join us to discuss the topic of unimolecular reactions and follow in the scientific footsteps of Lindemann!
On behalf of the organising committee, I look forward to welcoming you to Oxford, or if you are joining us virtually, online.
Struan Robertson
Chair
Format of the Discussion
Faraday Discussions remain amongst the only conferences to distribute the speakers’ research papers in advance, allowing the majority of each meeting to be devoted to discussion in which all delegates can participate. Following each meeting a written record of the discussion is published alongside the papers in the Faraday Discussion journal. Find out more about the Faraday Discussions in the video available.Themes
Gas phase unimolecular reactions are central to the complex chemistry of numerous processes, such as those occurring in the atmospheres of Earth and other planets, combustion for transportation and power generation, and industrial manufacturing of advanced chemicals and materials. Improved understanding of the fundamental chemistry of these processes is a pressing concern not only in the context of atmospheric pollution and climate change, but also designing more efficient industrial processes and fuels that can help attenuate this impact.In this Discussion we will examine the current state of unimolecular reaction experiment and theory, with an emphasis on application to contemporary challenges, such as atmospheric pollution, the search for alternative fuels and the better understanding of industrial processes.
The Faraday Discussion will be organised into the following themes:
Collisional energy transfer
A critical component in understanding the unimolecular process is energy transfer because of its central role in chemical activation and deactivation by collisions between molecules. This section will discuss the connection between kinetics and detailed dynamics calculations from both experimental and theoretical perspectives.
The reaction step
This section will focus on the current state of our understanding of the reaction step. Central to this section will be aspects of advanced RRKM theory, the adaptation of Transition State theory, the statistical theory of reactions rates, to the microcanonical ensemble and unimolecular reactions. Room will be made for alternative formulations of the problem as well as discussion of experiments.
The Master Equation
A large number of questions and issues remain over how best to exploit the master equation and how to interpret the results obtained from it. This section will consider challenges for the extraction of effective rate coefficients at high temperatures, two-dimensional master equations and their solution, and the simulation of systems where reactants are far from equilibrium.
Impact of Lindemann and related theories
This section will extend the discussion to include papers on new experimental methods, experiments that explore photochemical pathways and results from general kinetics studies. They will be drawn from all arenas including, but not limited to, combustion, atmospheric chemistry and industrial processes.
