Time-Dependent Wave Packet Studies on the Cl + HCl Hydrogen Exchange Reaction

Development of the Time-Independent Methods for the Cl + H2/F + HD Reaction Using Hyper-Spherical Coordinates Including (Full) Spin-Orbit Characteristics

Recently, a combined study of high-resolution molecular crossed beam experiment and accurate full-dimensional time-dependent theory, including full spin-orbit characteristics on the effect of electronic spin and orbital angular momenta in the F + HD reaction, was reported by some of us, focusing on the partial wave resonance phenomenon (Science 2021, 371, 936-940). It revealed that the time-dependent theory could explain all of the details observed in the high-resolution experiment. Here, we develop two time-independent close-coupling methods using hyperspherical coordinates, including the two-state model, where only a part of the spin-orbit characteristics is considered, and the six-state model, where the full spin-orbit characteristics is considered. With these two newly developed theoretical models and the adiabatic theoretical model, the detailed reaction dynamics of the F + HD (v = 0, j = 0) reaction and the Cl + H2 (v = 0, j = 0) reaction are investigated and compared. Some of the results are compared with the time-dependent quantum wave packet theory and the experimental observations, and good agreements have been obtained, which suggests the validity of the pure-procession approximation in the six-state model using different theoretical methods. This work demonstrates the ability of the reactive scattering theory including full spin-orbit characteristics for describing the reactions of a halogen atom plus hydrogen molecule and its isotopologues.

A high-resolution infrared spectroscopic investigation of the halogen atom–HCN entrance channel complexes solvated in superfluid helium droplets

Rotationally resolved infrared spectra are reported for the X-HCN (X = Cl, Br, I) binary complexes solvated in helium nanodroplets. These results are directly compared with those obtained previously for the corresponding X-HF complexes [J. M. Merritt, J. Küpper and R. E. Miller, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2005, 7, 67]. For bromine and iodine atoms complexed with HCN, two linear structures are observed and assigned to the (2)Sigma(1/2) and (2)Pi(3/2) ground electronic states of the nitrogen and hydrogen bound geometries, respectively. Experiments for HCN + chlorine atoms give rise to only a single band which is attributed to the nitrogen bound isomer. That the hydrogen bound isomer is not stabilized is rationalized in terms of a lowering of the isomerization barrier by spin-orbit coupling. Theoretical calculations with and without spin-orbit coupling have also been performed and are compared with our experimental results. The possibility of stabilizing high-energy structures containing multiple radicals is discussed, motivated by preliminary spectroscopic evidence for the di-radical Br-HCCCN-Br complex. Spectra for the corresponding molecular halogen HCN-X(2) complexes are also presented.