Re: excited states, equilibrium, chemical reactions...

From: Sbharris[atsign]ix.netcom.com (sbharris_at_ix.netcom.com)
Date: 03/26/05 

Date: 25 Mar 2005 18:35:41 -0800

>>You mean to say no matter what kind of
chemical reactions. The electrons are all
in ground states and only electromagnetic
wave can trigger the electrons to become
excited??

What happens to the chemical reactions
if you bombard it with electromagnetic
wave turning the electrons into excited
states. Can't you affect any parameters
of the reactions?? <<

Yes, you can do this with a laser. But the most common way to initiate
chemical reactions is with heat. When the atoms physically run into
each other, the kinetic energy can be, and and somes is, used to excite
electrons to different orbitals, and they can move from there, if the
atoms are close enough, into molecular orbitals which encompass both
atoms and make a bond. Old bonds are broken in similar ways-- either by
simply breaking up a molecule on impact with another, or by
degradation, as exited electrons from an old bond migrate over to form
a bond they like better, and thereby dissolve the previous bond,
leaving the atoms that compose it free.

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