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Low-temperature reactions

Tunnelling in space

Nature Chemistry volume 5, pages 734–736 (2013)Cite this article

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Chemical reactions with activation barriers generally slow to a halt in the extreme cold of dense interstellar clouds. Low-temperature experiments on the reaction of OH with methanol have now shown that below 200 K there is a major acceleration in the rate that can only be explained by enhanced quantum mechanical tunnelling through the barrier.

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Figure 1: General cases for exothermic reactions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ian R. Sims is in the Institut de Physique de Rennes, Université de Rennes 1, 263 Avenue du Général Leclerc, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France,

    Ian R. Sims

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  1. Ian R. Sims
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Correspondence to Ian R. Sims.

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Sims, I. Tunnelling in space. Nature Chem 5, 734–736 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.1736

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