Most notably, he has used this method for the study of important reactions for relatively large molecules. John C. Polanyi has developed the method of infrared chemiluminescence, in which the extremely weak infrared emission from a newly formed molecule is measured and analysed. He has used this method to elucidate the detailed energy disposal during chemical reactions. Background The molecules and atoms in all substances are in perpetual motion, and collisions between the molecules in a gas or a liquid thus occur continuously. When molecules come in close enough contact with each other, redistribution of the atoms can take place between or within them.
New molecules form so-called product molecules, which means that a chemical reaction takes place.
To effect a reaction, the colliding molecules are often required to have some special property such as high velocity or large internal energy. The classical description of how chemical reactions occur, and how rates of chemical reaction are measured, belongs to the field of chemical reaction kinetics. This field has developed rapidly during the last few decades, especially regarding experimental methods. The 1967 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to M. Eigen , Federal Republic of Germany , R.G.W. Norrish and G. Porter , Great Britain, for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions. The directions and velocities of the molecular motion in a gas or a liquid are mainly random.