(
)
340
M.L. CampbellrChemical Physics Letters 294 1998 339–344
into the important factors affecting transition metal
chemistry. We hope these new kinetic results will
inspire further theoretical work in an effort to gain a
better understanding of these reactions.
precursors at room temperature, the precursors re-
quired heating to get enough molecules into the gas
phase. Thus, the lowest temperature at which kinetic
experiments could be performed corresponded to
348 K for yttrium and 373 K for lanthanum. Below
these temperatures the LIF signal was too weak to
measure reliable values of the rate constant.
2. Experimental
The heated transition metal precursor was en-
trained in a flow of nitrogen buffer gas. The precur-
sor carrier gas, buffer gas and reactant gases flowed
through calibrated mass flow meters and flow con-
trollers prior to admission to the reaction chamber.
Each sidearm window was purged with a slow flow
of nitrogen buffer gas to prevent deposition of the
transition metal and other photoproducts. Pressures
were measured with MKS Baratron manometers, and
chamber temperatures were measured with a thermo-
couple. The delay time between the photolysis pulse
and the dye-laser pulse was varied by a digital delay
Žw
x
Pseudo-first-order kinetic experiments TM <
w
x.
oxidant were carried out in an apparatus with
slowly flowing gas using a laser photolysisrlaser-in-
duced fluorescence LIF technique. The experimen-
tal apparatus and technique have been described in
detail elsewhere 12 . Briefly, the reaction chamber
is a stainless-steel reducing 4-way cross with at-
tached side arms and a sapphire window for optical
viewing. The reaction chamber is enclosed within a
Ž
.
w
x
Ž
.
convection oven Blue M, model 206F, Tmax s623 K
for temperature dependence experiments.
Ž
.
Yttrium and lanthanum atoms were produced by
generator Stanford Research Systems DG535 con-
trolled by a computer. The trigger source for these
experiments was scattered pump laser light incident
upon a fast photodiode. LIF decay traces consisted of
200 points, each point averaged for 4 laser shots.
The following reagents were used as received:
Ž
.
the 248 nm photodissociation of yttrium III hexaflu-
w Ž . x
Ž
oroacetylacetonate Y hfa
and tris 6,6,7,7,8,8,8-
heptafluoro-2,2-dimethyl-3,5-octanedionate lan-
thanum III La FOD , respectively, using the fo-
cused output of an excimer laser Lambda Physics
3
.
Ž
. w
Ž
. x
3
Ž
.
Ž
. Ž
.
Ž
. Ž
.
Lextra 200 . The photolysis laser output was focused
Y hfa Strem, 99.9% , La FOD Strem, 99% , O2
MG Industries, 99.8% , N2O MG Industries, elec-
tronic grade, 99.999% , CO2 MG Industries, anaer-
obic grade, 99.9% , NO MG Industries, 99.0% and
3
3
Ž
.
Ž
.
Ž
using a lens fs564 mm positioned approximately
one focal length from the detection zone. Yttrium
atoms were detected via LIF using an excimer-
.
Ž
.
Ž
.
Ž
Ž
.
pumped dye laser Lambda Physics Lextra
N2 Potomac Airgas, 99.998% .
2
50rScanMate 2E tuned to the y D5r28 § a 2 D3r2
.
transition at 403.983 nm and the fluorescence at
412.831 nm was isolated with an interference filter
3. Data analysis and results
2
w
x
13 . Some experiments utilized the y F5r28 §
a 2 D3r2 transition at 407.738 nm 13 . Experimental
results were found to be independent of the optical
transition employed. Lanthanum atoms were detected
The decay rates of the a 2 D3r2 states of yttrium
and lanthanum as a function of reactant pressure
were investigated at various temperatures and total
pressures. The loss of ground state atoms is de-
scribed by the first-order decay constant, k1:
w
x
utilizing the y D5r28 § a 2 D3r2 transition at
2
515.869 nm and the fluorescence at 545.515 nm was
w
x
isolated with an interference filter 13 . The fluores-
cence was detected at 908 to the counterpropagated
laser beams with a three-lens telescope imaged
w
x
k1 s1rtsko qk2 oxid ,
1
Ž .
where t is the first-order time constant for the
Ž
through an iris. A photomultiplier tube Hamamatsu
removal of the transition metal under the given
.
Ž
.
R375 was used in collecting the LIF which was
subsequently sent to a gated boxcar sampling module
Stanford Research Systems SR250 , and the digi-
tized output was stored and analyzed by a computer.
experimental conditions, ko s1rto is the loss
term due to diffusion out of the detection zone and
reaction with the precursor and precursor fragments,
and k2 is the second-order rate constant. Typical
decay profiles are shown in Fig. 1. A time constant,
Ž
.
Because of the low vapor pressure of the two