The reactions of ground and excited state sodium atoms with hydrogen halide molecules

Abstract

The reactions of ground and excited state Na atoms with hydrogen halide (HX) molecules have been studied using the crossed molecular beams method. With both increasing translational and increasing electronic energy, the reactive cross sections increase in the reactions of HCl and HBr. From product angular and velocity distributions detailed center-of-mass information is derived. For the reactions of Na (3 2S 1 2 , 3 2P 1 2 , 4 2D 5 2 , 5 2S 1 2 ) with HCl, the product NaCl is back-scattered with respect to the incoming Na atom in the center-of-mass frame of reference. The reaction of each Na state studied with HCl is direct and proceeds via collinear and near-collinear Na-Cl-H approach geometries. For the Na (3 2P 3 2 ) and Na (4 2D 5 2 ) reactions with HCl the predominant transition state symmetry is 2Σ in a collinear (C ∞ν) Na-Cl-H geometry. This is consistent with the reaction proceeding via electron transfer from the Na atom to the halide atom. Absolute reactive cross sections for each state of Na studied with HCl were determined by comparison with both small and large angle elastic scattering. We were unable to observe Na atoms with over 4 eV of electronic energy react with HF up to collision energies of 13 kcal/mole.