Investigation of the O+allyl addition/elimination reaction pathways from the OCH2CHCH2 radical intermediate

Abstract

These experiments study the preparation of and product channels resulting from OCH(2)CHCH(2), a key radical intermediate in the O+allyl bimolecular reaction. The data include velocity map imaging and molecular beam scattering results to probe the photolytic generation of the radical intermediate and the subsequent pathways by which the radicals access the energetically allowed product channels of the bimolecular reaction. The photodissociation of epichlorohydrin at 193.3 nm produces chlorine atoms and c-OCH(2)CHCH(2) radicals; these undergo a facile ring opening to the OCH(2)CHCH(2) radical intermediate. State-selective resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) detection resolves the velocity distributions of ground and spin-orbit excited state chlorine independently, allowing for a more accurate determination of the internal energy distribution of the nascent radicals. We obtain good agreement detecting the velocity distributions of the Cl atoms with REMPI, vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photoionization at 13.8 eV, and electron bombardment ionization; all show a bimodal distribution of recoil kinetic energies. The dominant high recoil kinetic energy feature peaks near 33 kcalmol. To elucidate the product channels resulting from the OCH(2)CHCH(2) radical intermediate, the crossed laser-molecular beam experiment uses VUV photoionization and detects the velocity distribution of the possible products. The data identify the three dominant product channels as C(3)H(4)O (acrolein)+H, C(2)H(4)+HCO (formyl radical), and H(2)CO (formaldehyde)+C(2)H(3). A small signal from C(2)H(2)O (ketene) product is also detected. The measured velocity distributions and relative signal intensities at me=27, 28, and 29 at two photoionization energies show that the most exothermic product channel, C(2)H(5)+CO, does not contribute significantly to the product branching. The higher internal energy onset of the acrolein+H product channel is consistent with the relative barriers en route to each of these product channels calculated at the CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVQZ level of theory, although a clean determination of the barrier energy to H+acrolein is precluded by the substantial partitioning into rotational energy during the photolytic production of the nascent radicals. We compare the measured branching fraction to the H+acrolein product channel with a statistical prediction based on the calculated transition states.