REACTIONS OF THE CH RADICAL, AN IMPORTANT HYDROCARBON COMBUSTION INTERMEDIATE

Abstract

The CH radical is one the most important intermediates in hydrocarbon combustion systems. It has been observed in various hydrocarbon flames and atomic oxygen reactions because of its strong $A^{2}\Delta \rightarrow X^{2}\Pi$ emission at 430 nm. In this work we have employed the vacuum UV multiphoton dissociation method to generate the CH radical and the laser-induced fluorescence technique to detect its disappearance rates in a number of reactions involving $N_{2}, O_{2}, CO, CO_{2}, CH_{4}, C_{2} H_{6}, C_{2}H_{2}, C_{2}H_{4}, C_{6}H_{6}$, etc. The implication of this work will be discussed.