Rotational resonances in the H 2 CO roaming reaction are revealed by detailed correlations

Abstract

The phenomenon of roaming in chemical reactions (that is, bypassing the minimum energy pathway from unlikely geometries) has attracted a great deal of attention in the chemical reaction dynamics community over the past decade and still demonstrates unexpected results. Using velocity-map imaging of state-selected H 2 products of H 2 CO photodissociation, Quinn et al. discovered the bimodal structure of rotational distribution of the other product fragment, CO. Quasiclassical trajectories showed that this bimodality originates from two distinctive reaction pathways that proceed by the trans or cis configuration of O–C–H⋯H, leading to high or low rotational excitations of CO, respectively. Whether such a mechanism is present in the many other chemical reactions for which roaming reaction pathways have been reported is yet to be determined.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Sep 25, 2020
Source ID
10.1126/science.abc4088

Entities

People

  • Joel Bowman
  • Klaas Nauta
  • Meredith J. T. Jordan
  • Mitchell S. Quinn
  • Paul Houston
  • Scott Kable

Organizations

  • Army Research Office
  • Australian Research Council
  • Cornell University
  • Emory University
  • University of New South Wales
  • University of Sydney

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Chemistry

Readers

  • Molecular Photonics/Laser Physics
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Systems Analysis and Design