The unimolecular dissociation of the formyl radical HCO in the electronic ground state is investigated using a completely new ab initio potential energy surface. The dynamics calculations are performed in the time-independent picture by employing a variant of the log-derivative Kohn variational principle. The full resonance spectrum up to energies more than 2 eV above the vibrational ground state is explored. The three fundamental frequencies ͑in cm Ϫ1 ͒ for the H-CO and CO stretches, and the bending mode are 2446 ͑2435͒, 1844 ͑1868͒, and 1081 ͑1087͒, where the numbers in parentheses are the measured values of Sappey and Crosley obtained from dispersed fluorescence excitation spectra ͓J. Chem. Phys. 93, 7601 ͑1990͔͒. In the present work we primarily emphasize the dissociation of the pure CO stretching resonances (0v 2 0) and their decay mechanisms. The excitation energies, dissociation rates, and final vibrational-rotational state distributions of CO agree well with recent experimental data obtained from stimulated emission pumping. Similarities with and differences from previous time-independent and time-dependent calculations employing the widely used Bowman-Bittman-Harding potential energy surface are also discussed. Most intriguing are the pronounced oscillations of the dissociation rates for vibrational states v 2 у7 which are discussed in the framework of internal vibrational energy redistribution.

Three-dimensional quantum mechanical calculations have been carried out, using a modification of the log-derivative version of Kohn’s variational principle, to study the dissociation of HO2 into H and O2. In a previous paper, over 360 bound states were found for each parity, and these are shown to extend into the continuum, forming many resonant states. Analysis of the bound states close to the dissociation threshold have revealed that HO2 is a mainly irregular system and in this paper it is demonstrated how this irregularity persists in the continuum. At low energies above the threshold, these resonances are isolated and have widths that fluctuate strongly over more than two orders of magnitude. At higher energies, the resonances begin to overlap, while the fluctuations in the widths decrease. The fluctuations in the lifetimes and the intensities in an absorption-type spectrum are compared to the predictions of random matrix theory, and are found to be in fair agreement. The Rampsberger–Rice–Kassel–Marcus (RRKM) rates, calculated using variational transition state theory, compare well to the average of the quantum mechanical rates. The vibrational/rotational state distributions of O2 show strong fluctuations in the same way as the dissociation rates. However, their averages do not agree well with the predictions of statistical models, neither phase space theory (PST) nor the statistical adiabatic channel model (SACM), as these are dependent on the dynamical features of the exit channel. The results of classical trajectory calculations agree well on average with those of the quantum calculations.

This is the first of a series of papers in which we investigate the unimolecular dissociation of hydroperoxyl. Using the DMBE IV potential energy surface [Pastrana et al., J. Phys. Chem. 94, 8073 (1990)], in the present study 726 bound states of HO2(X̃) up to the H+O2 dissociation threshold are calculated in an attempt to access the extent of the coupling between the modes of the system. The first approach involves an analysis of the nodal structure of the wave functions. While the wave functions for the lowest states are regular and assignable, the degree of mixing and complexity rapidly increases with energy. The wave functions close to the dissociation threshold are mostly irregular without any clear cut nodal structure and fill the entire coordinate space available. Nevertheless, a small number of regular states, that are associated with large excitation in the O2 stretching coordinate and no or only little excitation in the other modes, are found even at high energies. The second approach used to study the degree of intramolecular coupling is an analysis of the energy spectrum. The nearest neighbor level spacing distribution, which probes the short-range correlation, as well as the Σ2 and Δ3 statistics, which are sensitive to the long-range correlations in the spectrum, are investigated and compared to the distributions predicted for regular and irregular spectra. Both of these approaches indicate that the system is almost totally irregular with a Brody parameter of about 92%. In addition, the sum of states at a particular energy, which is extremely important in all statistical models for unimolecular dissociation, is approximately calculated from the volume of classical phase space and found to be in excellent agreement with the exact quantum mechanical result.

A quantitative test of unimolecular rate theory in the multiphoton dissociation of CF2CFCl

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