Experimental Investigation of Neutral-Neutral Reactions and Energy Transfer at Low Temperatures

Over the last few years, we have applied the CRESU (Reaction Kinetics in Uniform Supersonic Flow) technique to the study of neutral-neutral reactions and energy transfer processes in the gas phase. This has enabled the rates of a wide range of reactions between electrically neutral species to be measured down to temperatures as low as ∼ 10 K. These results have generated significant interest amongst theoretical chemists, and especially amongst astrochemists. Our measurements of low-temperature rate coefficients have had a significant impact on the models used to simulate the chemistry of dense interstellar clouds. In this article the motivations for the experimental study of reaction kinetics at low temperatures are described, and a detailed description of the CRESU technique is given, followed by a brief overview of the results obtained in Rennes and Birmingham. Four recent low-temperature kinetic studies are then described: the reaction O + OH and the interstellar oxygen problem, reactions of the C_2 radical, energy transfer in collisions of C(^3{P}_J) with He and H_2, and preliminary results on the reaction kinetics of the C_4H radical.