The ultraviolet photodissociation of Cl2O at 235 nm and of HOCl at 235 and 266 nm

Abstract

The primary photochemistry of gas phase dichlorine monoxide (Cl2O) and of hypochlorous acid (HOCl) following excitation at 235 nm has been investigated using photofragment ion imaging to obtain the recoil velocity and angular distributions of the ground (2P3/2) and spin-orbit excited (2P1/2) atomic chlorine products. In the case of Cl2O, both Cl spin-orbit products exhibit angular distributions characterized by an anisotropy parameter, β=1.2±0.2, consistent with previous interpretations of the ultraviolet (UV) absorption spectrum of Cl2O which associate the broad intense absorption feature peaking at λ∼255 nm with excitation to a (bent) dissociative state of B21(C2v) symmetry. The recoil velocity distributions of the two Cl spin-orbit products are markedly different. The ground state atoms (which constitute >90% of the total Cl atom yield) are partnered by ClO fragments carrying significantly higher average levels of internal excitation. The slowest Cl atoms are most readily understood in terms of three body fragmentation of Cl2O to its constituent atoms. These findings are rationalized in terms of a model potential energy surface for the 1 1B2 state, which correlates diabatically with ClO(X) radicals together with a spin-orbit excited Cl atom, with efficient radiationless transfer to one (or more) lower energy surfaces at extended Cl-O bond lengths accounting for the dominance of ground state Cl atom fragments. The image of the ground state Cl atoms resulting from photolysis of HOCl at 235 nm is consistent with parent excitation via a transition for which the dipole moment is closely aligned with the Cl-O bond, followed by prompt dissociation (β=1.7±0.2) with the bulk of the excess energy partitioned into product recoil. Such conclusions are consistent with the results of laser induced fluorescence measurements of the OH(X) products resulting from 266 nm photodissociation of HOCl which reveal OH(X) products in both spin-orbit states, exclusively in their zero-point vibrational level, and carrying only modest levels of rotational excitation (well described by a Boltzmann distribution with Trot∼750±50 K).