Vacuum ultraviolet photodissociation dynamics of CO2 near 133 nm: The spin-forbidden O(P-3(j=2,1,0)) + CO(X-1 Sigma(+)) channel

摘要

Understanding vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photodissociation dynamics of CO2 is of considerable importance in the study of atmospheric chemistry and planetary chemistry. Yet, photodissociation dynamics of the spin-forbidden O(P-3(j=2,1,0)) + CO(X-1 Sigma(+)) channel has not been clearly understood so far. Here, we study the O(P-3(j)) + CO(X-1 Sigma(+)) dissociation processes in the VUV photodissociation of CO2 at the photolysis wavelengths between 129.02 and 134.67 nm by using the time-sliced velocity-mapped ion imaging technique. From the vibrational-resolved images of the O(P-3(j=2,1,0)) photofragment, the total kinetic energy releases, the CO(X-1 Sigma(+)) cofragment vibrational state distributions, and the product angular distributions have been derived, respectively. The experimental observations show that the total kinetic energy releases for the three P-3(j) spin-orbit states (j = 2, 1, 0) exhibit a broad CO(X-1 Sigma(+)) vibrational energy distribution with significant inverted characteristics, especially at short photoexcitation wavelengths, indicating that the VUV photodissociation could take place in a relatively linear geometry of the triplet state, with one C-O bond extended and the other compressed. Furthermore, a notable photolysis wavelength dependent feature has also been found in the product angular distributions of all three spin-orbit channels (j = 2, 1, 0): Only the vibrational-state specific anisotropy parameter beta values at 130.18 nm behave more anisotropic, while all those at other photolysis wavelengths are near the value ss = 0.5 for O(P-3(j=2,1)) channels or beta = 0.25 for the O(P-3(j=0)) channel, with small fluctuations. This anomalous phenomenon suggests that the different nonadiabatic interactions, such as singlet-triplet coupling, may play a key role in the formation of O(P-3(j=2,1,0)) + CO(X-1 Sigma(+)) products, with strong photolysis wavelength dependence. Published under license by AIP Publishing.