Pressure Dependence of the Laser-Initiated Isomerization of Methyl Isocyanide

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/j150666a008

The infrared laser-induced isomerization of methyl isocyanide has been investigated and found to exhibit a marked pressure dependence; i.e., for a given set of conditions, there exists a sharp threshold pressure above which there is massive isomerization.In the subthreshold region, it has been determined that the yield depends exponentially on the pressure for a multimode beam.Since other authors have suggested that this laser-induced reaction is a thermal explosion, we have also carried out a numerical simulation of this system as a thermal explosion.Both the experimental and theoretical results are presented, and the results show that the thermal explosion model does not fit the experimental data.