The neutron radiative capture reaction ${}^{17}\mathrm{O}(n,\gamma ){}^{18}\mathrm{O}$ plays a pivotal role in both nuclear structure studies and astrophysical nucleosynthesis, particularly in the formation of elements during hydrostatic and explosive stellar environments. We calculated the ${}^{17}\mathrm{O}(n,\gamma ){}^{18}\mathrm{O}$ cross section within the Skyrme Hartree-Fock potential model and analyzed electric dipole $E1$ transitions to both positive- and negative-parity states below the α-decay threshold in ${}^{18}\mathrm{O}$. Our cross sections are significantly different from the data available in commonly used libraries. We further investigate the impact of the new calculated cross section on weak $r$-process nucleosynthesis using large-scale reaction network calculations across a wide range of electron fractions and entropies. Our results show that the ${}^{17}\mathrm{O}(n,\gamma ){}^{18}\mathrm{O}$ reaction rate significantly influences the production of first $r$-process peak elements, such as strontium, under specific astrophysical conditions. This study highlights the importance of accurate nuclear data for light isotopes in modeling heavy-element synthesis and provides updated reaction rates for future nucleosynthesis simulations.

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• Direct reactions
• Models & methods for nuclear reactions
• Radiative capture
• r process
• 6 ≤ A ≤ 19