Hydrogen atom recombination on graphite at 10 K via the Eley–Rideal mechanism

This work reports results on the recombination of hydrogen atoms on a graphite surface at 10 K obtained using a detailed semi-classical molecular dynamics method in connection with the use of recently proposed ab initio potential energy surfaces. The calculated recombination probabilities together with the vibrational distributions of the formed H2 molecules obtained assuming that the surface reaction proceeds via the Eley–Rideal mechanism can have an impact on the chemistry of H2 formation in interstellar space.