Chemical Physics Letters, Vol.349, No.5-6, 421-425, 2001
Non-statistical formation of J = 1 T-2 (ortho-T-2) in recombination reaction of T+T+M -> T-2+M in liquid helium at 1.42-2.50 K
During the course of an investigation on chemical behaviors of hydrogen isotopes in quantum media, non-statistical formation of ortho-T-2 was observed in recombination reaction of T + T + He-3.4 --> T-2 + He-3,He-4 in liquid He-3-He-4 mixture at 1.42-2.50 K. The experimental ortho-T-2 fractions are larger than 0.9. The values are considerably higher than the equilibrium fraction of 0.75 at room temperature. Similar results have been reported in H-H recombination at low temperature. These facts suggest that similar reaction mechanism would be applied to both H and T atoms, which have the same nuclear spin number of 1/2.