The calculation of absolute total cross sections requires accurate wave functions of the photoelectron and of the initial and final states of the system. The essential information contained in the latter two can be condensed into a Dyson orbital. We employ correlated Dyson orbitals and test approximate treatments of the photoelectron wave function, that is, plane and Coulomb waves, by comparing computed and experimental photoionization and photodetachment spectra. We find that in anions, a plane wave treatment of the photoelectron provides a good description of photodetachment spectra. For photoionization of neutral atoms or molecules with one heavy atom, the photoelectron wave function must be treated as a Coulomb wave to account for the interaction of the photoelectron with the +1 charge of the ionized core. For larger molecules, the best agreement with experiment is often achieved by using a Coulomb wave with a partial (effective) charge smaller than unity. This likely derives from the fact that the effective charge at the centroid of the Dyson orbital, which serves as the origin of the spherical wave expansion, is smaller than the total charge of a polyatomic cation. The results suggest that accurate molecular photoionization cross sections can be computed with a modified central potential model that accounts for the nonspherical charge distribution of the core by adjusting the charge in the center of the expansion.

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b01891

Photoelectron wave function in photoionization: plane wave or Coulomb wave?

The absolute vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photoionization spectra of the hydroperoxyl radical (HO2), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and formaldehyde (H2CO) have been measured from their first ionization thresholds to 12.008 eV. HO2, H2O2, and H2CO were generated from the oxidation of methanol initiated by pulsed-laser-photolysis of Cl2 in a low-pressure slow flow reactor. Reactants, intermediates, and products were detected by time-resolved multiplexed synchrotron photoionization mass spectrometry. Absolute concentrations were obtained from the time-dependent photoion signals by modeling the kinetics of the methanol oxidation chemistry. Photoionization cross sections were determined at several photon energies relative to the cross section of methanol, which was in turn determined relative to that of propene. These measurements were used to place relative photoionization spectra of HO2, H2O2, and H2CO on an absolute scale, resulting in absolute photoionization spectra.

VUV photoionization cross sections of HO2, H2O2, and H2CO.

A Chirped-Pulse millimeter-Wave (CPmmW) spectrometer is applied to the study of chemical reaction products that result from pyrolysis in a Chen nozzle heated to 1000–1800 K. Millimeter-wave rotational spectroscopy unambiguously determines, for each polar reaction product, the species, the conformers, relative concentrations, conversion percentage from precursor to each product, and, in some cases, vibrational state population distributions. A chirped-pulse spectrometer can, within the frequency range of a single chirp, sample spectral regions of up to ∼10 GHz and simultaneously detect many reaction products. Here we introduce a modification to the CPmmW technique in which multiple chirps of different spectral content are applied to a molecular beam pulse that contains the pyrolysis reaction products. This technique allows for controlled allocation of its sensitivity to specific molecular transitions and effectively doubles the bandwidth of the spectrometer. As an example, the pyrolysis reaction of ethyl nitrite, CH3CH2ONO, is studied, and CH3CHO, H2CO, and HNO products are simultaneously observed and quantified, exploiting the multi-chirp CPmmW technique. Rotational and vibrational temperatures of some product molecules are determined. Subsequent to supersonic expansion from the heated nozzle, acetaldehyde molecules display a rotational temperature of 4 ± 1 K. Vibrational temperatures are found to be controlled by the collisional cooling in the expansion, and to be both species- and vibrational mode-dependent. Rotational transitions of vibrationally excited formaldehyde in levels ν4, 2ν4, 3ν4, ν2, ν3, and ν6 are observed and effective vibrational temperatures for modes 2, 3, 4, and 6 are determined and discussed.

Chirped-pulse millimeter-wave spectroscopy for dynamics and kinetics studies of pyrolysis reactions

The reactions of the methylidyne radical (CH) with ethylene, acetylene, allene, and methylacetylene are studied at room temperature using tunable vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) photoionization and time-resolved mass spectrometry. The CH radicals are prepared by 248 nm multiphoton photolysis of CHBr3 at 298 K and react with the selected hydrocarbon in a helium gas flow. Analysis of photoionization efficiency versus VUV photon wavelength permits isomer-specific detection of the reaction products and allows estimation of the reaction product branching ratios. The reactions proceed by either CH insertion or addition followed by H atom elimination from the intermediate adduct. In the CH + C2H4 reaction the C3H5 intermediate decays by H atom loss to yield 70(+-8)percent allene, 30(+-8)percent methylacetylene and less than 10percent cyclopropene, in agreement with previous RRKM results. In the CH + acetylene reaction, detection of mainly the cyclic C3H2 isomer is contrary to a previous RRKM calculation that predicted linear triplet propargylene to be 90percent of the total H-atom co-products. High-level CBS-APNO quantum calculations and RRKM calculation for the CH + C2H2 reaction presented in this manuscript predict a higher contribution of the cyclic C3H2 (27.0percent) versus triplet propargylene (63.5percent) than these earlier predictions. Extensive calculations on the C3H3 and C3H2D system combined with experimental isotope ratios for the CD + C2H2 reaction indicate that H-atom assisted isomerization in the present experiments is responsible for the discrepancy between the RRKM calculations and the experimental results. Cyclic isomers are also found to represent 30(+-6)percent of the detected products in the case of CH + methylacetylene, together with 33(+-6)percent 1,2,3-butatriene and 37(+-6)percent vinylacetylene. The CH + allene reaction gives 23(+-5)percent 1,2,3-butatriene and 77(+-5)percent vinylacetylene, whereas cyclic isomers are produced below the detection limit in this reaction. The reaction exit channels deduced by comparing the product distributions for the aforementioned reactions are discussed in detail.

Cyclic Versus Linear Isomers Produced by Reaction of the Methylidyne Radical (CH) with Small Unsaturated Hydrocarbons

Spectroscopic techniques can probe molecular systems non-invasively and investigate their structure, properties and dynamics in different environments and physico-chemical conditions. Different spectroscopic techniques (spanning different ranges of the electromagnetic field) and their combination can lead to a more comprehensive picture of investigated systems. However, the growing sophistication of these experimental techniques makes it increasingly complex to interpret spectroscopic results without the help of computational chemistry. Computational molecular spectroscopy, born as a branch of quantum chemistry to provide predictions of spectroscopic properties and features, emerged as an independent and highly specialized field but has progressively evolved to become a general tool also employed by experimentally oriented researchers. In this Primer, we focus on the computational characterization of medium-sized molecular systems by means of different spectroscopic techniques. We first provide essential information about the characteristics, accuracy and limitations of the available computational approaches, and select examples to illustrate common trends and outcomes of general validity that can be used for modelling spectroscopic phenomena. We emphasize the need for estimating error bars and limitations, coupling accuracy with interpretability, touch upon data deposition and reproducibility issues, and discuss the results in terms of widely recognized chemical concepts. Puzzarini and colleagues explore the computational characterization of medium-sized molecular systems using different spectroscopic techniques. The Primer provides essential information about the characteristics, accuracy and limitations of current computational approaches used for modelling spectroscopic phenomena with a focus on estimating error bars, limitations and coupling interpretability to accuracy.

Computational molecular spectroscopy

https://escholarship.org/content/qt34x2s372/qt34x2s372.pdf?t=pdve81

Formation of fulvene in the reaction of C2H with 1,3-butadiene

The products formed in the reaction between the methylidene radical (CH) and acrolein (CH2═CHCHO) are probed at 4 Torr and 298 K employing tunable vacuum-ultraviolet synchrotron light and multiplexed photoionization mass-spectrometry. The data suggest a principal exit channel of H loss from the adduct to yield C4H4O, accounting for (78 ± 10)% of the products. Examination of the photoionization spectra measured upon reaction of both CH and CD with acrolein reveals that the isomeric composition of the C4H4O product is (60 ± 12)% 1,3-butadienal and (17 ± 10)% furan. The remaining 23% of the possible C4H4O products cannot be accurately distinguished without more reliable photoionization spectra of the possible product isomers but most likely involves oxygenated butyne species. In addition, C2H2O and C3H4 are detected, which account for (14 ± 10)% and (8 +10, -8)% of the products, respectively. The C2H2O photoionization spectrum matches that of ketene and the C3H4 signal is composed of (24 ± 14)% allene and (76 ± 22)% propyne, with an upper limit of 8% placed on the cyclopropene contribution. The reactive potential energy surface is also investigated computationally, and specific rate coefficients are calculated with RRKM theory. These calculations predict overall branching fractions for 1,3-butadienal and furan of 27% and 12%, respectively, in agreement with the experimental results. In contrast, the calculations predict a prominent CO + 2-methylvinyl product channel that is at most a minor channel according to the experimental results. Studies with the CD radical strongly suggest that the title reaction proceeds predominantly via cycloaddition of the radical onto the C═O bond of acrolein, with cycloaddition to the C═C bond being the second most probable reactive mechanism.

/pdf/isomer-specific-product-detection-in-the-reaction-of-ch-with-4wqr6oth69.pdf

Isomer Specific Product Detection in the Reaction of CH with Acrolein

This work measures the absolute photoionization cross-section of the vinyl radical (σ vinyl(E)) between 8.1 and 11.0 eV. Two different methods were used to obtain absolute cross-section measurements: 193 nm photodissociation of methyl vinyl ketone (MVK) and 248 nm photodissociation of vinyl iodide (VI). The values of the photoionization cross-section for the vinyl radical using MVK, σ vinyl(10.224 eV) = (6.1 ± 1.4) Mb and σ vinyl(10.424 eV) = (8.3 ± 1.9) Mb, and using VI, σ vinyl(10.013 eV) = (4.7 ± 1.1) Mb, σ vinyl(10.513 eV) = (9.0 ± 2.1) Mb, and σ vinyl(10.813 eV) = (12.1 ± 2.9) Mb, define a photoionization cross-section that is ∼1.7 times smaller than a previous determination of this value.

Jessica F. Lockyear

Papers

Formation of fulvene in the reaction of C2H with 1,3-butadiene

Isomer Specific Product Detection in the Reaction of CH with Acrolein

Note: Absolute photoionization cross-section of the vinyl radical