Initial vibrational energy distributions determined by infra-red chemiluminescence

Abstract
Infra-red emission has been detected from hydrogen fluoride formed in the gas-phase atom-molecule exchange reactions of atomic fluorine with hydrogen and methane. Emission was limited to that from vibrational levels v′ˇ-3 in each case. An extrapolation technique has been used to obtain relative rate constants for direct chemical population of the various vibrational levels. The values found were k 3tk2=0·76, k 2tk1=3·4 for the F + H2 reaction and k 3tk2=0·23, k 2 k 1=3·0 for the F + CH4 case.