Dynamics of the O(3P) + C2H4 reaction: identification of five primary product channels (vinoxy, acetyl, methyl, methylene, and ketene) and branching ratios by the crossed molecular beam technique with soft electron ionization

Piergiorgio Casavecchia; Giovanni Capozza; Enrico Segoloni; Francesca Leonori; Nadia Balucani; Gian Gualberto Volpi

doi:10.1021/jp050627+

Dynamics of the O(3P) + C2H4 reaction: identification of five primary product channels (vinoxy, acetyl, methyl, methylene, and ketene) and branching ratios by the crossed molecular beam technique with soft electron ionization

J Phys Chem A. 2005 Apr 28;109(16):3527-30. doi: 10.1021/jp050627+.

Authors

Piergiorgio Casavecchia¹, Giovanni Capozza, Enrico Segoloni, Francesca Leonori, Nadia Balucani, Gian Gualberto Volpi

Affiliation

¹ Dipartimento di Chimica, Università di Perugia, 06123 Perugia, Italy.

PMID: 16839016
DOI: 10.1021/jp050627+

Abstract

The crossed molecular beam scattering technique with soft electron ionization (EI) is used to disentangle the complex dynamics of the polyatomic O(3P) + C2H4 reaction, which is of great relevance in combustion and atmospheric chemistry. Exploiting the newly developed capability of attaining universal product detection by using soft EI, at a collision energy of 54.0 kJ mol(-1), five different primary products have been identified, which correspond to the five exoergic competing channels leading to CH2CHO(vinoxy) + H, CH3CO(acetyl) + H, CH3(methyl) + HCO(formyl), CH2(methylene) + HCHO(formaldehyde), and CH2CO(ketene) + H2. From laboratory product angular and velocity distributions, center-of-mass product angular and translational energy distributions and the relative branching ratios for each channel have been obtained, affording an unprecedented characterization of this important reaction.