Seminars Archive
Spectroscopy and Dynamics of a Combustion Intermediate: HOCO
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, San Diego, USA
Abstract
In this talk the application of photoelectron-photofragment coincidence techniques to the study of transient species starting from negative ion precursors will be reviewed, with a focus on our recent studies of the intermediate radical in the oxidation of CO by the hydroxyl radical: OH + CO -> HOCO -> H + CO2. Using a new cryogenically cooled electrostatic ion beam trap we have been able to produce cold HOCO- precursor anions and gain significant experimental insights into the spectroscopy of HOCO and the tunneling dynamics from the HOCO radical well to produce H + CO2 products through studies of photodetachment and dissociative photodetachment of the precursor anion. These results and proposed studies of vibrationally excited precursor anions will be presented. This work was supported by the U.S. DOE under grant DE-FG03-98ER14879.
