Abstract
The photolyses of mixtures of NH3, NH2D, NHD2, and ND3 have been studied at wave lengths of 2144, 2139, 2062, and 1850 Å in the presence of C3H8 as a hydrogen atom scavenger. Quantum yields of dissociation have the same values for all four species, presumably unity. Analysis of the H2 and HD produced permitted evaluation of intramolecular deuterium isotope effects in the photodissociation of NH2D and ND2H. At the two shortest wavelengths dissociation of H was favored by a factor of 2 or 3, while at 2144 and 2139 Å the isotope effect was much larger. Implications for the mechanism of the predissociation of the Ã-state of ammonia are discussed briefly. The system does not appear to be useful for the photochemical separation of deuterium.