Infrared-driven dynamics and scattering mechanisms of NO radicals with propane and butane: impacts of pseudo Jahn-Teller effects.

The topology of multidimensional potential energy surfaces defines the bimolecular collision outcomes of open-shell radicals with molecular partners. Understanding these surfaces is crucial for predicting the inelastic scattering and chemical transformations of increasingly complex radical-molecule collisions. To characterize the inelastic scattering mechanisms of nitric oxide (NO) radicals with large alkanes, we generated the collision complexes comprised of NO with propane or -butane.