Studies on photodissociation dynamics of butadiene monoxide at 193 nm.

Butadiene monoxide (BMO) undergoes the S(0)-->S(1) transition, involving the excitation of both pi and n electrons to pi(*) orbital, at 193 nm. After relaxing to the ground electronic state via internal conversion, BMO molecules undergo intramolecular rearrangement and subsequently dissociate to form unexpected OH radicals, which were detected state selectively by laser-induced fluorescence technique, and the energy state distribution was measured. OH is produced vibrationally cold, OH(nu(")=0,J(")), with the rotational population characterized by a rotational temperature of 456+/-70 K. The major portion (approximately 60%) of the available energy is partitioned into internal degrees of the photofragments, namely, vibration and rotation. A considerable portion (25%-35%) also goes to the relative translation of the products. The Lambda doublet and spin-orbit ratios of OH were measured to be nearly unity, implying statistical distribution of these states and, hence, no preference for any of the Lambda doublet (Lambda+ and Lambda-) and spin-orbit (Pi(3/2) and Pi(1/2)) states. Formation time of the nascent OH radical was measured to be <100 ns. Different products, such as crotonaldehyde and methyl vinyl ketone, were detected by gas chromatography as stable products of photodissociation. A reaction mechanism for the formation of all these photoproducts, transient and stable, is proposed. The multiple pathways by which these products can be formed have been theoretically optimized, and energies have been calculated. Absorption cross section of BMO at 193 nm was measured, and quantum yield of OH generation channel was also determined.

Detection of OH radical in laser induced photodissociation of tetrahydrofuran at 193 nm.

On excitation at 193 nm, tetrahydrofuran (THF) generates OH as one of the photodissociation products. The nascent energy state distribution of the OH radical was measured employing laser induced fluorescence technique. It is observed that the OH radical is formed mostly in the ground vibrational level, with low rotational excitation (approximately 3%). The rotational distribution of OH (v"=0,J) is characterized by rotational temperature of 1250+/-140 K. Two spin-orbit states, 2Pi3/2 and 2Pi1/2 of OH are populated statistically. But, there is a preferential population in Lambda doublet levels. For all rotational numbers, the 2Pi+(A') levels are preferred to the 2Pi-(A") levels. The relative translational energy associated with the photoproducts in the OH channel is calculated to be 17.4+/-2.2 kcal mol-1, giving an fT value of approximately 36%, and the remaining 61% of the available energy is distributed in the internal modes of the other photofragment, i.e., C4H7. The observed distribution of the available energy agrees well with a hybrid model of energy partitioning, predicting an exit barrier of approximately 16 kcal mol-1. Based on both ab initio molecular orbital calculations and experimental results, a plausible mechanism for OH formation is proposed. The mechanism involves three steps, the C-O bond cleavage of the ring, H atom migration to the O atom, and the C-OH bond scission, in sequence, to generate OH from the ground electronic state of THF. Besides this high energy reaction channel, other photodissociation channels of THF have been identified by detecting the stable products, using Fourier transform infrared and gas chromatography.

Dissociation dynamics of thiolactic acid at 193 nm: detection of the nascent OH product by laser-induced fluorescence.

Electronically excited thiolactic acid (2-mercaptopropionic acid), H(3)C-CH(SH)-COOH, undergoes the C-OH bond cleavage on excitation to the S(2) state at 193 nm, generating the primary product OH (v,J), which is detected by laser-induced fluorescence technique in a collisionless condition of flow system. The partitioning of the available energy between vibrational, rotational, and translational degrees of freedom of nascent photofragments is obtained from relative intensities of ro-vibronic lines in laser-induced fluorescence spectrum of OH, and their Doppler profiles. The rotational population of OH (v(")=0) is characterized by rotational temperature of 408+/-25 K. OH is produced in a vibrationally cold state, i.e., mostly in v(")=0. The average translational energy of OH (v(")=0,J(")) is found to be 21.5+/-2.0 kcal/mol, which implies 25.6 kcal/mol of energy in relative translation of photoproducts corresponding to the f(t) value of approximately 0.6. The observed high translational energy is due to the presence of a barrier in the exit channel, implying that the C-OH bond scission takes place on an electronically excited potential energy surface. The observed partitioning of the available energy between various degrees of the photofragments is theoretically modeled, and the hybrid model, with 26.0 kcal/mol of barrier in the exit channel, is found to explain the measured data quite well. The experimental results are also supported with ab initio molecular orbital calculations for both the ground and the excited electronic states. Time-dependent density functional theory is used to understand the nature of various electronic transitions connecting the lower excited states. Potential energy curves as a function of the C-OH bond length of thiolactic acid suggest distinct exit barriers in the S(1), T(1), and T(2) states. But, we could locate the transition state structure for OH formation in the S(1) state alone. Thus, although thiolactic acid is excited to the S(2) state at 193 nm, it undergoes internal conversion to S(1) where it dissociates to yield OH. In addition to the OH channel from excited electronic states, we studied theoretically all probable dissociation channels occurring on the ground electronic state of thiolactic acid.