High-Temperature Fluorocarbon Chemistry Revisited

Influence of Molecular Parameters on Rate Constants of Thermal Dissociation/Recombination Reactions: The Reaction System CF4 ⇄ CF3 + F

The possibilities to extract incompletely characterized molecular parameters from experimental thermal rate constants for dissociation and recombination reactions are explored. The reaction system CF₄ (+M) ⇄ CF₃ + F (+M) is chosen as a representative example. A set of falloff curves is constructed and compared with the available experimental database. Agreement is achieved by minor (unfortunately not separable) adjustments of reaction enthalpy and collisional energy transfer parameters.

Shock wave and modelling study of the unimolecular dissociation of Si(CH3)2F2: an access to spectroscopic and kinetic properties of SiF2

The thermal dissociation of Si(CH₃)₂F₂ was studied in shock waves between 1400 and 1900 K. UV absorption-time profiles of its dissociation products SiF₂ and CH₃ were monitored. The reaction proceeds as a unimolecular process not far from the high-pressure limit. Comparing modelled and experimental results, an asymmetric representation of the falloff curves was shown to be most realistic. Modelled limiting high-pressure rate constants agreed well with the experimental data. The UV absorption spectrum of SiF₂ was shown to be quasi-continuous, with a maximum near 222 nm and a wavelength-integrated absorption cross section of 4.3 (±1) × 10^-23 cm³ (between 195 and 255 nm, base e), the latter being consistent with radiative lifetimes from the literature. Experiments over the range 1900-3200 K showed that SiF₂ was not consumed by a simple bond fission SiF₂ →SiF + F, but by a bimolecular reaction SiF₂ + SiF₂ → SiF + SiF₃ (rate constant in the range 10¹¹-10¹² cm³ mol^-1 s^-1), followed by the unimolecular dissociation SiF₃ → SiF₂ + F such that the reaction becomes catalyzed by the reactant SiF₂. The analogy to a pathway CF₂ + CF₂ → CF + CF₃, followed by CF₃ → CF₂ + F, in high-temperature fluorocarbon chemistry is stressed. Besides the high-temperature absorption cross sections of SiF₂, analogous data for SiF are also reported.