Communication: Photodissociation of CH3CHO at 308 nm: Observation of H-roaming, CH3-roaming, and transition state pathways together along the ground state surface

Citation:
Li, H-K, Tsai P-Y, Hung K-C, Kasai T, Lin K-C.  2015.  Communication: Photodissociation of CH3CHO at 308 nm: Observation of H-roaming, CH3-roaming, and transition state pathways together along the ground state surface. Journal of Chemical Physics. 142, Number 4

Abstract:

Following photodissociation of acetaldehyde (CH3CHO) at 308 nm, the CO(v = 1-4) fragment is acquired using time-resolved Fourier-transform infrared emission spectroscopy. The CO(v = 1) rotational distribution shows a bimodal feature; the low- and high-J components result from H-roaming around CH3CO core and CH3-roaming around CHO radical, respectively, in consistency with a recent assignment by Kable and co-workers (Lee et al., Chem. Sci. 5, 4633 (2014)). The H-roaming pathway disappears at the CO(v 2) states, because of insufficient available energy following bond-breaking of H + CH3CO. By analyzing the CH4 emission spectrum, we obtained a bimodal vibrational distribution; the low-energy component is ascribed to the transition state (TS) pathway, consistent with prediction by quasiclassical trajectory calculations, while the high-energy component results from H- and CH3-roamings. A branching fraction of H-roaming/CH3-roaming/TS contribution is evaluated to be (8% ± 3%)/(68% ± 10%)/(25% ± 5%), in which the TS pathway was observed for the first time. The three pathways proceed concomitantly along the electronic ground state surface. © 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

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