| Abstract
| - Quasiclassical, direct dynamics trajectories have been used to study the reaction of formaldehyde cation withmolecular hydrogen, simulating the conditions in an experimental study of H2CO+ vibrational effects on thisreaction. Effects of five different H2CO+ modes were probed, and we also examined different approaches totreating zero-point energy in quasiclassical trajectories. The calculated absolute cross-sections are in excellentagreement with experiments, and the results provide insight into the reaction mechanism, product scatteringbehavior, and energy disposal, and how they vary with impact parameter and reactant state. The reaction issharply orientation-dependent, even at high collision energies, and both trajectories and experiment find thatH2CO+ vibration inhibits reaction. On the other hand, the trajectories do not reproduce the anomalouslystrong effect of ν2+ (the CO stretch). The origin of the discrepancy and approaches for minimizing suchproblems in quasiclassical trajectories are discussed.
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