A termolecular (or trimolecular) reaction in solutions or gas mixtures involves three reactants simultaneously colliding, with appropriate orientation and sufficient energy. However the term trimolecular is also used to refer to three body association reactions of the type:
Where the M over the arrow denotes that to conserve energy and momentum a second reaction with a third body is required. After the initial bimolecular collision of A and B an energetically excited reaction intermediate is formed, then, it collides with a M body, in a second bimolecular reaction, transferring the excess energy to it.
The reaction can be explained as two consecutive reactions:
These reactions frequently have a pressure and temperature dependence region of transition between second and third order kinetics.
Catalytic reactions are often three-component, but in practice a complex of the starting materials is first formed and the rate-determining step is the reaction of this complex into products, not an adventitious collision between the two species and the catalyst. For example, in hydrogenation with a metal catalyst, molecular dihydrogen first dissociates onto the metal surface into hydrogen atoms bound to the surface, and it is these monatomic hydrogens that react with the starting material, also previously adsorbed onto the surface.
Reactions of higher molecularity are not observed due to very small probability of simultaneous interaction between 4 or more molecules.