Diatomic-Ion—Molecule Reactions: N2+–N2, CO+–CO, and O2+–O2

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Abstract
New channels of reaction have been found in the N2+–N2 and CO+–CO ion—molecule systems. These processes which account for a major fraction of the total ion—molecule collision cross section yield, respectively, N+ and C+ ions. A study of the energetics of the respective processes leads to the conclusion that stable neutral N3 and CO2 are also formed. A value of approximately 6 eV is obtained for the energy of dissociation of N3 radicals into N and N2. Minor reaction products N3+ and C2O+ observed in earlier studies of the N2+–N2 and CO+–CO systems were also observed in this work. In the O2+–O2 system only O3+ ions were detected and in relatively minor yields. Production of O3+ rather than O+ is energetically favored. The relatively small yield of O3+ is shown to be a result of the energetics of the system which tends to cycle O3+ back to O2+ and O atoms which are not detected in the mass-spectrometer analysis of reaction products. In all three systems over-all reaction cross sections were found to be in good agreement with theoretical values of ion—molecule collision cross sections when sufficient energy is available and all channels of reaction are taken into consideration.

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