Studies explain new basic reaction
5 Sep 2013
Researchers at MIT and the University of Minnesota have fully understood a low-temperature reaction for the first time, according to reports.
The basic reaction, which is only the 37th to be discovered to date, has been in consideration for three decades but has not been fully understood, until now.
The reaction relates to an important part of atmospheric reactions that create the formation of climate-affecting aerosols - biochemical reactions that may have significance in human physiology and combustion reactions in engines.
Published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the analysis detailed the research conducted by MIT graduate Amrit Jalan, chemical engineering professor William Green and six further researchers.
“We decided to see if we could explain his observations by throwing quantum mechanical tools at the problem
MIT graduate Amrit Jalan
Stefan Korcek of the Ford Motor Company first proposed a hypothesis for how the reaction might take place. The latest research shows that Korcek had the right concept, although some details differ from his initial predictions.
The original discovery was the result of analysing how engine oils break down through oxidation - part of an attempt to produce oils that would last longer.
In analysing the problem, Korcek realised that, “there were fundamental things about the way even simple hydrocarbons react with oxygen that we didn’t understand,” according to Green.
On discovering that Korcek’s work had neither been verified nor full explained, Jalan “decided to see if (we) could explain his observations by throwing quantum mechanical tools at the problem.”
In collaboration Minnesotan researcher Donald Truhlar, Jalan and Green were able to demonstrate why the reaction works as it does.
Green noted that because this is an entirely new type of reaction, it opens the door to research on other variations. “Once you discover a new type of reaction, there must be many similar ones,” he said.
