Dissociation dynamics of the à 2A″ state of vinyl radical

Photoinduced C–H bond fission in prototypical organic molecules and radicals

We survey and assess current knowledge regarding the primary photochemistry of hydrocarbon molecules and radicals.

Vibrational modes of the vinyl and deuterated vinyl radicals

Following the initial report of the detection of fundamental transitions of all nine vibrational modes of the vinyl radical [Letendre , L. ; Liu , D.-K. ; Pibel , C. D. ; Halpern , J. B. ; Dai , H.-L. J. Chem. Phys. 2000 , 112 , 9209] by time-resolved IR emission spectroscopy, we have re-examined the assignments of the vibrational modes through isotope substitution. Precursor molecules vinyl chloride-d3, vinyl bromide-d3, and 1,3-butadiene-d6 are used for generating vibrationally excited vinyl-d3 through 193 nm photolysis. The nondeuterated versions of these molecules along with vinyl iodide and methyl vinyl ketone are used as precursors for the production of vinyl-h3. IR emission following the 193 nm photolysis laser pulse is recorded with nanosecond time and approximately 8 cm(-1) frequency resolution. A room-temperature acetylene gas cell is used as a filter to remove the fundamental transitions of acetylene, a photolysis product, in order to reduce the complexity of the emission spectra. Two-dimensional cross-spectra correlation analysis is used to identify the emission bands from the same emitting species and improve the S/N of the emission spectra. Isotope substitution allows the identification of several low-frequency vibrational modes. For C2H3, the assigned modes are the nu4 (CC stretch) at 1595, nu5 (CH2 symmetric bend) at 1401, nu6 (CH2 asymmetric + alpha-CH bend) at 1074, nu8 (CH2 + alpha-CH symmetric out-of-plane (oop) bend) at 944, and nu9 (CH2 + alpha-CH asymmetric oop bend) at 897 cm(-1). For C2D3, the modes are the nu5 (CD2 symmetric bend) at 1060, nu6 (CD2 asymmetric + alpha-CD bend) at 820, and nu8 (CD2 + alpha-CD symmetric oop bend) at 728 cm(-1).

A Spectroscopist's View of Energy States, Energy Transfers, and Chemical Reactions

This chapter describes a research career beginning at Berkeley in 1960, shortly after Sputnik and the invention of the laser. Following thesis work on vibrational spectroscopy and the chemical reactivity of small molecules, we studied vibrational energy transfers in my own lab. Collision-induced transfers among vibrations of a single molecule, from one molecule to another, and from vibration to rotation and translation were elucidated. My research group also studied the competition between vibrational relaxation and chemical reaction for potentially reactive collisions with one molecule vibrationally excited. Lasers were used to enrich isotopes by the excitation of a predissociative transition of a selected isotopomer. We also tested the hypotheses of transition-state theory for unimolecular reactions of ketene, formaldehyde, and formyl fluoride by (a) resolving individual molecular eigenstates above a dissociation threshold, (b) locating vibrational levels at the transition state, (c) observing quantum resonances in the barrier region for motion along a reaction coordinate, and (d) studying energy release to fragments.