Rate constant and mechanism of the reaction Cl + CFCl₂H → CFCl₂ + HCl over the temperature range 298-670 K in N₂ or N₂/O₂ diluent.

Abstract

The rate constant of the reaction Cl + CFCl2H (k1) has been measured relative to the established rate constant for the reaction Cl + CH4 (k2) at 760 Torr. The measurements were carried out in Pyrex reactors using a mixture of CFCl2H, CH4, and Cl2 in either N2 or N2/O2 diluent. Reactants and products were quantified by GC/FID analysis. Cl atoms were generated by irradiation of the mixture with 360 nm light to dissociate the Cl2 for temperatures up to ~550 K. At higher temperature, the Cl2 dissociated thermally, and no irradiation was used. Over the temperature range 298-670 K, k1 is consistently a factor of ~5 smaller than that of k2 with a nearly identical temperature dependence. The optimum non-Arrhenius rate constant is represented by the expression k1 = 1.14 × 10(-22) T(3.49) e(-241/T) cm(3) molecule(-1) s(-1) with an estimated uncertainty of ±15% including uncertainty in the reference reaction. CFCl3 formed from the reaction CFCl2 + Cl2 (k3) is the sole product in N2 diluent. In ~20% O2 at 298 K, the CFCl3 product is suppressed. The rate constant of reaction 3 was measured relative to that of reaction 4 [CFCl2 + O2 (k4)] giving the result k3/k4 = 0.0031 ± 0.0005 at 298 K. An earlier experiment by others observed C(O)FCl to be the major product of reaction channel 4 [formed via the sequence, CFCl2(O2) → CFCl2O → C(O)FCl + Cl]. Our current experiments verified that there is a Cl atom chain reaction in the presence of O2 as required by this mechanism.