Knowledge Bank

The lifetime of the $\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">1</mrow>}A2$ state of $H2$CO was re-measured using a pulsed r-f discharge. The emission was dispersed on a monochromator, detected with a 56 AVP photomultiplier, and time sampled with a PAR Model 160 boxcar integrator. The discharge had a cut-off of 15 ns detected on a Hewlett-Packard Model 1710 A oscilloscope. The results of our experiment were in disagreement with recent formaldehyde high pressure$\mathrm{<mrow\; data-mjx-texclass="ORD">1,2</mrow>}$ laser measurements and they are in closest agreement with previous absorption $measurements.3$ Data were in the pressure range from 7 to 101 m Torr and were extrapolated to zero pressure. Our results for the wavelength regions near 5097, 4821, 4673, 4434, 4220, 4121, 3847, 3763, and 3679 {\AA} are $(3.76\pm 0.25)\times 10-6$, $(3.27\pm 0.58)\times 10-6$, $(3.02\pm 0.07)\times 10-6$, $(2.65\pm 0.16)\times 10-6$, $(2.63\pm 0.26)\times 10-6$, $(3.12\pm 0.22)\times 10-6$, $(3.34\pm 0.13)\times 10-6$, $(2.64\pm 0.16)\times 10-6$, $(3.46\pm 0.26)\times 10-6$, respectively.