Steric Effects in the Cl+CHD₃(v₁=1) Reaction (cited: 2)

A recent study has revealed a full 3-dimentional reactive scattering picture of the reaction Cl+CHD₃(v₁=1) as the Cl atoms attack CHD₃ from various directions respective to the C-H stretching bond. The reported polarization-dependent differential cross sections provide the most detailed characterization of the influences of reagent alignments on reactivity. To convey the stereo-specific information more accessible to general chemists, we show here, by proper symmetry considerations, how to retrieve from the measurements the relative integral and differential cross sections of two most common collision geometries: the end-on versus side-on attacks. The results, albeit coarse-grained, provide an appealing picture that not only reinforces our intuition about chemical reactivity, but also sheds more light on the conventional (unpolarized) attributes