RPMDrate: Bimolecular chemical reaction rates from ring polymer molecular dynamics Original Research Article

We present RPMDrate, a computer program for the calculation of gas phase bimolecular reaction rate coefficients using the ring polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD) method. The RPMD rate coefficient is calculated using the Bennett–Chandler method as a product of a static (centroid density quantum transition state theory (QTST) rate) and a dynamic (ring polymer transmission coefficient) factor. The computational procedure is general and can be used to treat bimolecular polyatomic reactions of any complexity in their full dimensionality. The program has been tested for the H+H2, H+CH4, OH+CH4 and H+C2H6 reactions.