A quasiclassical trajectory study of the N₂(X¹Σ) + O(³P) → NO(X²Π) + N(⁴S) reaction

We present quasiclassical trajectory simulations of the high-energy collision-induced O(³P) + N₂ reaction. The simulation results show that reactive scattering may proceed on both the ³A′ and ³A″ potential energy surfaces, but the reaction on ³A″ surface overwhelmingly dominates. At total energies of collision slightly above the threshold, the NO(X²Π) product is found to be scattered primarily in the forward direction, and at higher collision energies, the fraction of NO products that scatter in the backward direction increases. Two-dimensional joint distributions of the center-of-mass differential cross section and translational energy have been examined to unravel the details of the scattering as functions of collision energy.