Nascent product states in the photoinitiated reaction of O3 and H2O

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Abstract
The rotational, vibrational and fine-structure state distributions for the reaction 16O(1D)+ H218O →16OH +18OH, triggered by 266 nm photolysis of O3, have been measured under conditions where less than 1% of the nascent fragments experienced collisions prior to detection. The distributions are qualitatively different than those reported earlier for 266 nm photolysis, which were evidently affected by collisions. The rotational and vibrational state distributions are similar to recent 248 nm photolysis experiments, but with differences attributed to collisional and/or energetic effects in those experiments. The ‘‘new’’ 16OH is formed with vibrational populations in the ratio 0.39(v=0):0.29(v=1):0.3(v≥2). Gaussian rotational energy distributions peaked near N=12 give average rotational energies of 〈Erot〉 = 3440 and 2780 cm−1 for 16OH v=0 and v=1, respectively. The ‘‘old’’ 18OH is much colder with vibrational populations 0.94(v=0):0.06(v=1) and a 18OH v=0 Gaussian rotational energy distribution characterized by 〈Erot〉 = 1920 cm−1. There is negligible rotational alignment of the 16OH fragments [βμJ′ = β20(02) = 5A(0)2/4 = 0.06± 0.09], which is significantly less than expected for fragment rotations aligned with respect to the O+H2O relative velocity vector. The spin-orbit propensities deviate slightly from the statistical expectation and are characterized by [F2,N]/[F1,N]=(0.89±0.06) ×N/(N + 1). The Λ-doublet distributions for 18OH (all N) and 16OH (low-to-moderate N) fragments conform to an unconstrained-dynamics prior distribution. A slight propensity for Π(A′) in excess of this expectation is seen for the 16OH (high N) fragments. These new results are discussed in terms of possible insertion and abstraction mechanisms for the reaction.