Dissociation Pathways of the CH2CH2ONO Radical: NO2 + Ethene, NO + Oxirane, and a Non-Intrinsic Reaction Coordinate HNO + Vinoxy Pathway

CH3O Substitution Effect Revisited in the Vibrationally Resolved Laser-Induced Fluorescence Spectra of Methoxycyclohexoxy Radicals

The oxy-substituted alkoxy radicals have attracted wide attention due to the increasing application of oxygenated volatile organic compounds as fuel additives and solvents. Direct detection of these intermediate radicals is desired for measuring the reaction rate and investigating the oxidation mechanism of organic compounds in the atmosphere. A charge-transfer excited state induced by CH3O substitution was identified in our previous study of 3-methoxy-1-propoxy radical [Xue, J. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2021, 23, 2586]. As the C-C bonds of chain alkoxy radicals can freely rotate, further studies are needed to understand the mechanism of this long-range charge-transfer effect. In this work, vibrational-resolved laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectra of 3- and 4-methoxycyclohexoxy radicals were obtained under jet-cooled conditions. A large red-shift of ∼454 cm-1 of the origin band was observed when the CH3O substituent moved from the δ site to the γ site of the cyclohexoxy radical. The LIF spectra are assigned to 3-cis (e, e) and 4-trans (e, e) conformers, respectively, with the assistance of structural optimization and electron excitation studies conducted at the CAM-B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory. Natural transition orbital analysis reveals that the intramolecular charge transfer from the C-O-C p orbital to the radical O p orbital in 3-methoxycyclohexoxy has a strong effect on the radical CO σ → O p excitation and hence results in a spectral change. On the other hand, the spectral effect of CH3O substitution almost vanishes at δ carbon. The results propose a through-bond interaction between CH3O and radical CO groups.

Direct observation of the intermediate radical in the photodissociation of 1,3-cyclohexane dinitrite

A two-step photodissociation mechanism was proposed in the literature for dinitrites in the absence of direct evidence of the intermediate species. In this work, photodissociation dynamics of cis and trans 1,3-cyclohexane dinitrites are investigated by laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy and theoretical calculation methods. Observation of the fluorescence spectra of the 3-nitrosooxy cyclohexoxy radical provides direct experimental evidence that the intermediate species exists. The results indicate that photodissociation of dinitrites indeed follows a two-step mechanism, i.e. one of the O-NO bonds of the molecule breaks first upon 355 nm laser photolysis and generates an alkoxy radical (RO) plus NO; the alkoxy radical further dissociates in the secondary dissociation step and produces small fragments such as vinoxy etc.

Primary Product Branching in the Photodissociation of Chloroacetaldehyde at 157 nm

We used crossed laser-molecular beam scattering to study the primary photodissociation channels of chloroacetaldehyde (CH₂ClCHO) at 157 nm. In addition to the C-Cl bond fission primary photodissociation channel, the data evidence two other photodissociation channels: HCl photoelimination and C-C bond fission. This is the first direct evidence of the C-C bond fission channel in chloroacetaldehyde, and we found that it significantly competes with the C-Cl bond fission channel. We determined the total primary photodissociation branching fractions for C-Cl fission:HCl elimination:C-C fission to be 0.65:0.07:0.28. The branching between the primary channels suggests the presence of interesting excited state dynamics in chloroacetaldehyde. Some of the vinoxy radicals from C-Cl photofission and most of the ketene cofragments formed in HCl photoelimination have enough internal energy to undergo secondary dissociation. While our previous velocity map imaging study on the photodissociation of chloroacetaldehyde at 157 nm focused on the barrier for the unimolecular dissociation of vinoxy to H + ketene, this work shows that the HCl elimination channel contributed to the high kinetic energy portion of the m/z = 42 signal in that study.

Dissociative Photoionization of the Elusive Vinoxy Radical

These experiments report the dissociative photoionization of vinoxy radicals to m/z = 15 and 29. In a crossed laser-molecular beam scattering apparatus, we induce C-Cl bond fission in 2-chloroacetaldehyde by photoexcitation at 157 nm. Our velocity measurements, combined with conservation of angular momentum, show that 21% of the C-Cl photofission events form vinoxy radicals that are stable to subsequent dissociation to CH₃ + CO or H + ketene. Photoionization of these stable vinoxy radicals, identified by their velocities, which are momentum-matched with the higher-kinetic-energy Cl atom photofragments, shows that the vinoxy radicals dissociatively photoionize to give signal at m/z = 15 and 29. We calibrated the partial photoionization cross section of vinoxy to CH₃⁺ relative to the bandwidth-averaged photoionization cross section of the Cl atom at 13.68 eV to put the partial photoionization cross sections on an absolute scale. The resulting bandwidth-averaged partial cross sections are 0.63 and 1.3 Mb at 10.5 and 11.44 eV, respectively. These values are consistent with the upper limit to the cross section estimated from a study by Savee et al. on the O(³P) + propene bimolecular reaction. We note that the uncertainty in these values is primarily dependent on the signal attributed to C-Cl primary photofission in the m/z = 35 (Cl⁺) time-of-flight data. While the value is a rough estimate, the bandwidth-averaged partial photoionization cross section of vinoxy to HCO⁺ calculated from the signal at m/z = 29 at 11.53 eV is approximately half that of vinoxy to CH₃⁺. We also present critical points on the potential energy surface of the vinoxy cation calculated at the G4//B3LYP/6-311++G(3df,2p) level of theory to support the observation of dissociative ionization of vinoxy to both CH₃⁺ and HCO⁺.

Photodissociation dynamics of dinitrite at 355 nm: initiation of a reactive pathway

Dinitrites are effective nitrosating reagents in preparative chemistry and their decomposition products are involved in the atmospheric reaction of volatile organic compounds with nitrogen oxides (NO_x). In this work, photodissociation dynamics of five alkyl dinitrites were investigated by detecting the LIF spectra of the dissociation products and theoretical calculations. The results showed that the C-C bond connecting the two nitrosooxy (-ONO) functional groups was the weakest bond in vicinal dinitrites and aldehydes were the dissociation products. For dinitrites with two ONO groups separated by a CH₂ group, vinoxy and 1-methylvinoxy radicals were detected as the fragments via photodissociation, indicating a different mechanism compared to thermal decomposition. This observation demonstrated that a new reactive pathway could be initiated by photolysis of dinitrites.