Cross Section of OH Radical Overtone Transition near 7028 cm(-1) and Measurement of the Rate Constant of the Reaction of OH with HO2 Radicals.

Abstract

The absorption cross section of an overtone transition of OH radicals at 7028.831 cm(-1) has been measured using an improved experimental setup coupling laser photolysis to three individual time-resolved detection techniques. Time-resolved relative OH radical profiles were measured by laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), and their absolute profiles have been obtained by cw-cavity ring-down spectroscopy (cw-CRDS). HO2 radicals were quantified simultaneously at the well-characterized absorption line at 6638.21 cm(-1) by a second cw-CRDS absorption path. Initial OH concentrations and thus their absorption cross sections have been deduced from experiments of 248 nm photolysis of H2O2: OH and HO2 profiles have been fitted to a simple kinetic model using well-known rate constants. The rate constant of the reaction between OH and HO2 radicals turned out to be sensitive to the deduction of the initial OH concentration and has been revisited in this work: OH decays have been observed in the presence of varying excess HO2 concentrations. A rate constant of (1.02 ± 0.06) × 10(-10) cm(3) s(-1) has been obtained, in good agreement with previous measurements and recent recommendations. An absorption cross section of σOH = (1.54 ± 0.1) × 10(-19) cm(2) at a total pressure of 50 Torr helium has been obtained from consistent fitting of OH and HO2 profiles in a large range of concentrations.