PHOTODISSOCIATION DYNAMICS OF VINYL CYANIDE STUDIED BY CHIRPED-PULSE MILLIMETER-WAVE SPECTROSCOPY OF HCN AND HNC PRODUCTS

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Abstract

Vinyl cyanide 193 nm photodissociation has been studied using Chirped-Pulse Millimeter-Wave (CPmmW) spectroscopy. $J = 0 - 1$ transitions of more than 30 vibrationally excited states of the HCN and HNC products have been recorded and assigned within the 7~GHz wide chirp range. Bending excitations of HCN up to $v_2 = 14$, leading toward the HCN $\leftrightarrow$ HNC isomerization transition state, are detected and interpreted in terms of their electric quadrupole, ($eQq)_\mathrm{N}$, and rotational, $B_v$, constants. The photolysis reaction transition states were probed using both normal vinyl cyanide, CH$_2$=CHCN, and its singly-deuterated isotopologue, CH$_2$=CDCN. The observed difference in the vibrational population distribution (VPD) obtained from the integrated intensities of the HCN and DCN products from the CH$_2$=CHCN vs. CH$_2$=CDCN photolysis reactions, suggests the relative unimportance of the three-center elimination mechanism for HCN production. On the other hand, the similarity in the observed VPD and overall intensities of HCN from CH$_2$=CHCN and CH$_2$=CDCN photolysis suggests four-center elimination as the major mechanism leading to the HCN product. Additional $J - (J + 1)$ transitions would be required to characterize both the vibrational and the rotational state distributions of the products, which would permit more complete characterization of the transition state(s).

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The authors thank the Department of Energy, and KP thanks the ACS Petroleum Research Fund for their support of this work.
Author Institution: Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139; Department of Chemistry, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202; Department of Chemistry, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627; Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139

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