Vibrational reactivity control harnesses quantum realm to speed up chemistry

For the first time, the reaction between two compounds has been sped up using quantum mechanical interactions between molecular vibrations. Huilin Pan and Kopin Liu from the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences (IAMS) in Taipei, Taiwan, made some vibrations of singly deuterated methane react faster with chlorine at ambient temperature using ‘quantum phase control’. ‘Our new finding expands the concept of vibrational control of chemical reactivity into the quantum regime,’ Pan tells Chemistry World.