Oxygen + Photons: Uni- or Bi-Molecular Process?

[quietrain]

if i have oxygen + photons => products

if this is an elementary process, is this a uni-molecular process or a bi-molecular process?

i.e do we count photons as a molecule?

thanks!

 

[Borek]

do we count photons as a molecule?

We don't.

 

[quietrain]

thanks!

 

[juanrga]

if i have oxygen + photons => products

if this is an elementary process, is this a uni-molecular process or a bi-molecular process?

i.e do we count photons as a molecule?

thanks!

It is bi-molecular because without photons there is not reaction

Photons are treated as any other reactant. The rate for your process is

V = k [ oxigen ] [ photons ]

Under certain conditions this second order looks as pseudo-first order or as pseudo-zero-order.

For example if photons are in excess then its concentration is approximately constant and the rate can be approximated by the pseudo-first-order

V = k' [ oxigen ]

with k' = k [ photons ]

See http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ed082p37.3 and references therein for a more detailed discussion and examples.

 

[LudusRex]

I would say that the reaction between oxygen and photons can be considered a uni-molecular process. This is because photons are not considered to be molecules, but rather individual particles of light. Therefore, the reaction involves only one molecule (oxygen) and one particle (photon), making it a uni-molecular process. However, if there were multiple oxygen molecules reacting with multiple photons, then it would be considered a bi-molecular process. It is important to note that the classification of a reaction as uni- or bi-molecular depends on the number of molecules involved in the reaction, not the number of particles.