Our new concept: molecular hotspots

Our recent paper was just published in Combustion and Flame.  The idea is simple.  At the molecular collision level, chemical reactions liberating energy give rise to energetic particles. These highly energetic particles may trigger other reactions locally, before their translational kinetic energy can be equilibrated with the bulk.  Such hotspots have been theorized nearly 60 years ago by Prigogine and co-workers.  Our molecular dynamic simulations confirm that large modifications to the reaction rate can be anticipated for highly exothermic reactions.