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Science 3 October 2003:
Vol. 302. no. 5642, pp. 70 - 71
DOI: 10.1126/science.1090172
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Perspectives

CHEMISTRY:
Toward Vibrational Mode Control in Catalysis

A. C. Luntz

Vibrational excitations of specific bonds in molecules have been used to enhance the reactivity of the molecules in direct gas-phase reactions. In his Perspective, Luntz highlights a report by Beck et al., who show that such vibrational control may also be possible for catalytic reactions at a surface. The authors demonstrate that differently excited deuterated methane molecules have different dissociation probabilities on a nickel surface, even though the energies of the different molecules are similar.

The author is affiliated with the Department of Physics, University of Southern Denmark, 5230 Odense M, Denmark. E-mail: acluntz{at}pacbell.net

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Preference for Vibrational over Translational Energy in a Gas-Surface Reaction.
R. R. Smith, D. R. Killelea, D. F. DelSesto, and A. L. Utz (2004)
Science 304, 992-995
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