Experimental determination of the rate constants of the reactions of HO 2 + DO 2 and DO 2 + DO 2

Rate constant and branching ratio of the reaction of ethyl peroxy radicals with methyl peroxy radicals

The cross-reaction of ethyl peroxy radicals (C₂H₅O₂) with methyl peroxy radicals (CH₃O₂) (R1) has been studied using laser photolysis coupled to time resolved detection of the two different peroxy radicals by continuous wave cavity ring down spectroscopy (cw-CRDS) in their AÃ-X̃ electronic transition in the near-infrared region, C₂H₅O₂ at 7602.25 cm^-1, and CH₃O₂ at 7488.13 cm^-1. This detection scheme is not completely selective for both radicals, but it is demonstrated that it has great advantages compared to the widely used, but unselective UV absorption spectroscopy. Peroxy radicals were generated from the reaction of Cl-atoms with the appropriate hydrocarbon (CH₄ and C₂H₆) in the presence of O₂, whereby Cl-atoms were generated by 351 nm photolysis of Cl₂. For different reasons detailed in the manuscript, all experiments were carried out under excess of C₂H₅O₂ over CH₃O₂. The experimental results were best reproduced by an appropriate chemical model with a rate constant for the cross-reaction of k = (3.8 ± 1.0) × 10^-13 cm³ s^-1 and a yield for the radical channel, leading to CH₃O and C₂H₅O, of (ϕ_1a = 0.40 ± 0.20).

Permutation-Invariant-Polynomial Neural-Network-Based Δ-Machine Learning Approach: A Case for the HO2 Self-Reaction and Its Dynamics Study

Δ-machine learning, or the hierarchical construction scheme, is a highly cost-effective method, as only a small number of high-level ab initio energies are required to improve a potential energy surface (PES) fit to a large number of low-level points. However, there is no efficient and systematic way to select as few points as possible from the low-level data set. We here propose a permutation-invariant-polynomial neural-network (PIP-NN)-based Δ-machine learning approach to construct full-dimensional accurate PESs of complicated reactions efficiently. Particularly, the high flexibility of the NN is exploited to efficiently sample points from the low-level data set. This approach is applied to the challenging case of a HO₂ self-reaction with a large configuration space. Only 14% of the DFT data set is used to successfully bring a newly fitted DFT PES to the UCCSD(T)-F12a/AVTZ quality. Then, the quasiclassical trajectory (QCT) calculations are performed to study its dynamics, particularly the mode specificity.

Rate Constants and Branching Ratios for the Self-Reaction of Acetyl Peroxy (CH3C(O)O2•) and Its Reaction with CH3O2

The self-reaction of acetylperoxy radicals (CH3C(O)O2•) (R1) as well as their reaction with methyl peroxy radicals (CH3O2•) (R2) have been studied using laser photolysis coupled to a selective time resolved detection of three different radicals by cw-CRDS in the near-infrared range: CH3C(O)O2• was detected in the Ã-X˜ electronic transition at 6497.94 cm−1, HO2• was detected in the 2ν1 vibrational overtone at 6638.2 cm−1, and CH3O2• radicals were detected in the Ã-X˜ electronic transition at 7489.16 cm−1. Pulsed photolysis of different precursors at different wavelengths, always in the presence of O2, was used to generate CH3C(O)O2• and CH3O2• radicals: acetaldehyde (CH3CHO/Cl2 mixture or biacetyle (CH3C(O)C(O)CH3) at 351 nm, and acetone (CH3C(O)CH3) or CH3C(O)C(O)CH3 at 248 nm. From photolysis experiments using CH3C(O)C(O)CH3 or CH3C(O)CH3 as precursor, the rate constant for the self-reaction was found with k1 = (1.3 ± 0.3) × 10−11 cm3s−1, in good agreement with current recommendations, while the rate constant for the cross reaction with CH3O2• was found to be k2 = (2.0 ± 0.4) × 10−11 cm3s−1, which is nearly two times faster than current recommendations. The branching ratio of (R2) towards the radical products was found at 0.67, compared with 0.9 for the currently recommended value. Using the reaction of Cl•-atoms with CH3CHO as precursor resulted in radical profiles that were not reproducible by the model: secondary chemistry possibly involving Cl• or Cl2 might occur, but could not be identified.