JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS
VOLUME 112, NUMBER 19
15 MAY 2000
3
Direct kinetic measurements on reactions of atomic carbon, C„ P…,
with O2 and NO at temperatures down to 15 K
´
Delphine Chastaing, Sebastien D. Le Picard, and Ian R. Sims
School of Chemistry, The University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, United Kingdom
͑Received 22 February 2000; accepted 25 February 2000͒
´
´
A CRESU ͑Cinetique de Reaction en Ecoulement Supersonique Uniforme͒ apparatus has been used
to measure rate coefficients for the reactions of C (3P) with O2 and NO at temperatures from
295 K down to 15 K. C (3P) atoms were, for the first time in a kinetic study, monitored directly by
vacuum ultraviolet laser-induced fluorescence. The rate coefficients for both reactions increase
as the temperature is lowered, matching the expressions k(CϩO2)ϭ(4.9Ϯ0.8)ϫ10Ϫ11
Ϫ͑0.32Ϯ0.08͒
(T/298 K͒
cm3 moleculeϪ1 sϪ1 and k͑CϩNO͒ϭ͑1.5Ϯ0.4͒ϫ10Ϫ10 (T/298 K)Ϫ(0.16Ϯ0.14)
cm3 moleculeϪ1 sϪ1
. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. ͓S0021-9606͑00͒01719-0͔
INTRODUCTION
ing crossed molecular beams. References to these earlier
studies may be found in our previous paper.1
Ground state atomic carbon, C(2p2 3PJ) has been de-
tected in a wide range of astronomical environments, and is
particularly abundant in dense interstellar clouds. Reactions
of C(3P) are thought to be important in the synthesis of
long-chain carbon-containing radicals observed there, and so
there is considerable interest in the measurement of the rate
coefficients for C(3P) reactions down to the temperatures
prevailing in these dense clouds ͑10–50 K͒.
EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUE
In order to measure the rate of the prototypical atom–
diatomic radical reaction between C and NO, as well as to
confirm our earlier results, we sought to devise a scheme for
directly detecting the relative concentration of C(3P) formed
in the CRESU flow, using one-photon vacuum ultraviolet
͑VUV͒ laser-induced fluorescence ͑LIF͒. We initially at-
tempted to use a two-photon scheme first demonstrated by
Bersohn and co-workers,2 whereby a two-photon UV excita-
tion is followed by VUV fluorescence. However, this proved
impractical for kinetic measurements, as the precursor mol-
ecule, C3O2, was very effectively photolyzed by the probe
laser, presumably via multiphoton absorption, resulting in a
high and constant background signal. We therefore turned to
one-photon VUV LIF employing the (3s 3P–2p 3p) transi-
tions around ϭ166 nm. One-photon VUV LIF detection of
C(3P) has been demonstrated previously,3 but never in a
kinetic study. Generation of the required 166 nm radiation is
not possible using standard frequency-tripling techniques in
rare gas mixtures, and so we chose instead to employ two-
photon resonant frequency mixing in xenon.4
The CRESU method, as applied to neutral–neutral reac-
tions, has already been described in detail by Sims et al.5
Full specifications of the Birmingham CRESU apparatus
have also been given recently by James et al.6 Here, we give
a brief description of the CRESU apparatus, emphasizing the
aspects peculiar to this study.
The heart of the CRESU apparatus is an axisymmetric
Laval nozzle, mounted on a moveable reservoir within a
vacuum chamber. All the temperatures ͑apart from 295 K͒ in
the gas flows were achieved by the isentropic expansion of
the gas mixture prepared in the reservoir through the nozzle
and into the main chamber. This expansion generates a su-
personic flow of gas in which the Mach number, the tem-
perature, the density of the gas, the mole fraction of the
co-reagent and the velocity of the gas stream are constant
along the axis of the flow. A range of nozzles was employed
We recently performed the first ever measurements on
the kinetics of C(3P) reactions below room temperature, us-
ing an indirect chemiluminescence technique to follow the
concentration of C(3P) with time in a CRESU ͑reaction ki-
netics in uniform supersonic flow͒ apparatus.1 Reaction rates
were determined by observing the chemiluminescence from
NO (B 2⌸) which is generated in the reaction between
C(3P) atoms and NO2. As C(3P) was not observed directly,
it was not possible to confirm experimentally that any ex-
cited spin–orbit population formed in the photolysis was re-
laxed. It was argued that, as the spin–orbit splittings in
C(3P) are rather small, the 3P1 and 3P2 states lying 16.4 and
43.4 cmϪ1, respectively, above the ground state P0, relax-
3
ation would be very rapid. Furthermore, it was necessary to
consider the possibility that other photolysis products of
C3O2 were responsible for the observed signal. It was con-
cluded that they were not. However, experimental confirma-
tion of these points awaited the current work employing di-
rect detection of atomic carbon. We had also hoped to
measure the rate of reaction of C(3P) with NO in our previ-
ous study, but this proved impossible owing to the reaction
of NO with NO2 present in excess as part of the chemilumi-
nescence detection scheme.
Apart from the results published in our earlier paper,
kinetic measurements on reactions of carbon atoms have
been confined to room temperature or above. Husain and
co-workers have performed kinetic measurements on the
widest variety of reactions using atomic resonance absorp-
tion to detect C(3P). Becker and co-workers are the only
group to have used LIF detection, via a two-photon transi-
tion. Some dynamical studies have also been carried out us-
0021-9606/2000/112(19)/8466/4/$17.00
8466
© 2000 American Institute of Physics
146.189.194.69 On: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 22:17:02