Gas-phase chloroiodomethane short-time photodissociation dynamics in the A-band absorption and a comparison with the solution phase short-time photodissociation dynamics

Photodissociation dynamics of ICH2Cl → CH2Cl + I*/I: photofragment translational spectroscopy at 304 and 277 nm

The photodissociation dynamics of ICH2Cl → CH2Cl + I*/I at 304 and 277 nm has been investigated with our mini-TOF photofragment translational spectrometer with a weak acceleration field of <1 V cm(-1). Many peaks are resolved or partially resolved in the TOF spectra and the photofragment translational spectra (PTS) of both the I*((2)P1/2) channel and the I((2)P3/2) channel. These resolved peaks are assigned to the C-Cl stretch vibrational states of the CH2Cl fragment. The rotational energy ER of the CH2Cl fragment is highly excited due to its asymmetric structure. The value of ER/ET is measured to be about 0.71. In the I* channel, the partitioning of the available energy Eavl into the translational energy ET, the rotational energy ER, and the vibrational energy EV for each resolved vibrational state has been calculated.

CONNECTING CHEMICAL DYNAMICS IN GASES AND LIQUIDS

▪ Abstract  Modern ultrafast spectroscopic techniques provide new opportunities to study chemical reaction dynamics in liquids and hold the possibility of obtaining much of the same detailed information available in gases. Vibrational energy transfer studies are the most advanced of the investigations and demonstrate that it is possible to observe state-specific pathways of energy flow within a vibrationally excited molecule (intramolecular vibrational relaxation) and into the surrounding solvent molecules (intermolecular energy transfer). Energy transfer in liquids and gases share many common aspects, but the presence of the solvent also alters the relaxation in both obvious and subtle ways. Photodissociation is amenable to similarly detailed study in liquids, and there are informative new measurements. Bimolecular reactions have received the least attention in state-resolved measurements in liquids, but the means to carry them much further now exist. Studying photodissociation and bimolecular reaction of molecules prepared with initial vibrational excitation in liquids is a realistic, but challenging, goal.

A 193 nm laser photofragmentation time-of-flight mass spectrometric study of chloroiodomethane

The photodissociation dynamics of chloroiodomethane (CH2ICl) at 193 nm has been investigated by employing the photofragment time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometric method. Using tunable vacuum ultraviolet undulator synchrotron radiation for photoionization sampling of nascent photofragments, we have identified four primary dissociation product channels: CH2Cl + I(2P(1/2))/I(2P(3/2)), CH2I + Cl(2P(1/2))/Cl(2P(3/2)), CHI + HCl, and CH2 + ICl. The state-selective detection of I(2P(3/2)) and I(2P(1/2)) has allowed the estimation of the branching ratio for I(2P(1/2)):I(2P(3/2)) to be 0.73:0.27. Theoretical calculations based on the time-dependent density-functional theory have been also made to investigate excited electronic potential-energy surfaces, plausible intermediates, and transition structures involved in these photodissociation reactions. The translation energy distributions derived from the TOF measurements suggest that at least two dissociation mechanisms are operative for these photodissociation processes. One involves the direct dissociation from the 2 1A' state initially formed by 193 nm excitation, leading to significant kinetic-energy releases. For the I-atom and Cl-atom elimination channels, the fragment kinetic-energy releases observed via this direct dissociation mechanism are consistent with those predicted by the impulsive dissociation models. Other mechanisms are likely predissociative or statistical in nature from the lower 1 1A' and 1 1A'' states and/or the ground X 1A' state populated by internal conversion from the 2 1A' state. On the basis of the maximum kinetic-energy release for the formation of CH2Cl + I(2P(1/2)), we have obtained a value of 53+/-2 kcal/mol for the 0 K bond dissociation energy of I-CH2Cl. The intermediates and transition structures for the CHI + HCl and CH2 + ICl product channels have been also investigated by ab initio quantum calculations at the MP2(full)/6-311G(d) and B3LYP(full)/6-11G(d) levels of theory. The maximum kinetic-energy releases observed for the CHI + HCl and CH2 + ICl channels are consistent with the interpretation that the formation of CHI and CH2 in their ground triplet states is not favored.