skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Deep tunneling in the unimolecular decay of CH3CHOO Criegee intermediates to OH radical products

Journal Article · · Journal of Chemical Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4972015· OSTI ID:1373744

Unimolecular decay of Criegee intermediates produced in alkene ozonolysis is known to be a significant source of OH radicals in the troposphere. In this work, unimolecular decay of the methyl-substituted Criegee intermediate, syn-CH3CHOO, to OH products is shown to occur at energies significantly below the transition state barrier for a 1,4 hydrogen transfer that leads to these products. The rate of appearance of OH products arising from tunneling through the barrier is obtained through direct time-domain measurements following the vibrational activation of syn-CH3CHOO. IR excitation of syn-CH3CHOO at energies nearly 2000 cm-1 below the barrier is achieved through combination bands involving CH stretch and another lower frequency mode, and the resultant OH products are detected by UV laser-induced fluorescence. The observed syn-CH3CHOO combination bands in the 4100–4350 cm-1 region are identified by comparison with the computed IR absorption spectrum. The experimental decay rates are found to be ca. 106 s-1 in this deep tunneling regime, which is approximately 100-times slower than that in the vicinity of the barrier.The experimental results are consistent with statistical Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM) calculations of the microcanonical decay rates with tunneling through the barrier, and notable deviations may originate from the sparsity in the density of states for syn-CH3CHOO at lower energies. Finally, thermal unimolecular decay of syn-CH3CHOO is predicted to have significant contribution from microcanonical rates at energies that are much below the barrier.

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357; CHE-1362835; CHE-1619660
OSTI ID:
1373744
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1336837
Journal Information:
Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 145, Issue 23; ISSN 0021-9606
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 10 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (52)

Improved Multidimensional Semiclassical Tunneling Theory journal November 2013
UV Spectroscopic Characterization of Dimethyl- and Ethyl-Substituted Carbonyl Oxides journal March 2014
Known and Unexplored Organic Constituents in the Earth's Atmosphere journal March 2007
Unimolecular dissociation dynamics of vibrationally activated CH3CHOO Criegee intermediates to OH radical products journal April 2016
Computational Studies of the Isomerization and Hydration Reactions of Acetaldehyde Oxide and Methyl Vinyl Carbonyl Oxide journal September 2010
Connecting Chemical Dynamics in Gases and Liquids journal May 2006
Fourier-transform microwave spectroscopy of an alkyl substituted Criegee intermediate anti-CH3CHOO journal April 2015
Stabilization of the Simplest Criegee Intermediate from the Reaction between Ozone and Ethylene: A High-Level Quantum Chemical and Kinetic Analysis of Ozonolysis journal May 2015
Total radical yields from tropospheric ethene ozonolysis journal January 2011
A transition state theory‐based statistical distribution of unimolecular decay rates with application to unimolecular decomposition of formaldehyde journal October 1990
Mechanism of HO x Formation in the Gas-Phase Ozone-Alkene Reaction. 2. Prompt versus Thermal Dissociation of Carbonyl Oxides to Form OH journal May 2001
Kinetic and Theoretical Investigation of the Gas-Phase Ozonolysis of Isoprene:  Carbonyl Oxides as an Important Source for OH Radicals in the Atmosphere journal August 1997
Ab initio calculation of anharmonic constants for a transition state, with application to semiclassical transition state tunneling probabilities journal August 1990
Night-time radical chemistry during the TORCH campaign journal June 2009
Unimolecular Decomposition Rate of the Criegee Intermediate (CH 3 ) 2 COO Measured Directly with UV Absorption Spectroscopy journal February 2016
Direct kinetic measurement of the reaction of the simplest Criegee intermediate with water vapor journal January 2015
Direct Measurements of Unimolecular and Bimolecular Reaction Kinetics of the Criegee Intermediate (CH 3 ) 2 COO journal December 2016
A novel and facile decay path of Criegee intermediates by intramolecular insertion reactions via roaming transition states journal March 2015
The gas-phase ozonolysis of unsaturated volatile organic compounds in the troposphere journal January 2008
MRCISD Studies of the Dissociation of Vinylhydroperoxide, CH 2 CHOOH: There Is a Saddle Point journal May 2012
Direct Kinetic Measurements of Criegee Intermediate (CH2OO) Formed by Reaction of CH2I with O2 journal January 2012
The addition and dissociation reaction atomic hydrogen + carbon monoxide .dblharw. oxomethyl. 1. Theoretical RRKM studies journal September 1987
Impact of the water dimer on the atmospheric reactivity of carbonyl oxides journal January 2016
A practical implementation of semi-classical transition state theory for polyatomics journal October 2010
The reactions of ozone with alkenes: An important source of HO x in the boundary layer journal December 1996
Tropospheric OH and HO2 radicals: field measurements and model comparisons journal January 2012
Theoretical/experimental comparison of deep tunneling decay of quasi-bound H(D)OCO to H(D) + CO 2 journal August 2014
Direct observation of OH formation from stabilised Criegee intermediates journal January 2014
Tunnelling Corrections for Unsymmetrical Eckart Potential Energy Barriers journal March 1962
Velocity map imaging of OH radical products from IR activated (CH3)2COO Criegee intermediates journal September 2016
Gaussian basis sets for use in correlated molecular calculations. V. Core‐valence basis sets for boron through neon journal September 1995
Urban Atmospheric Chemistry During the PUMA Campaign 2: Radical Budgets for OH, HO2 and RO2 journal October 2005
UV spectroscopic characterization of an alkyl substituted Criegee intermediate CH 3 CHOO journal June 2013
Perspective: Spectroscopy and kinetics of small gaseous Criegee intermediates journal July 2015
Adventures in ozoneland: down the rabbit-hole journal January 2011
The physical chemistry of Criegee intermediates in the gas phase journal July 2015
Communication: Spectroscopic characterization of an alkyl substituted Criegee intermediate syn -CH 3 CHOO through pure rotational transitions journal January 2014
Communication: Thermal unimolecular decomposition of syn-CH 3 CHOO: A kinetic study journal October 2016
Atmospheric Chemistry of Criegee Intermediates: Unimolecular Reactions and Reactions with Water journal October 2016
Kinetics of a Criegee intermediate that would survive high humidity and may oxidize atmospheric SO 2 journal August 2015
Systematically convergent basis sets for explicitly correlated wavefunctions: The atoms H, He, B–Ne, and Al–Ar journal February 2008
UV absorption probing of the conformer-dependent reactivity of a Criegee intermediate CH 3 CHOO journal January 2014
A random matrix/transition state theory for the probability distribution of state‐specific unimolecular decay rates: Generalization to include total angular momentum conservation and other dynamical symmetries journal July 1993
Direct Measurements of Conformer-Dependent Reactivity of the Criegee Intermediate CH3CHOO journal April 2013
Direct observation of unimolecular decay of CH 3 CH 2 CHOO Criegee intermediates to OH radical products journal July 2016
Infrared-driven unimolecular reaction of CH3CHOO Criegee intermediates to OH radical products journal September 2014
Communication: Real time observation of unimolecular decay of Criegee intermediates to OH radical products journal February 2016
Harmonic and Anharmonic Vibrational Frequency Calculations with the Double-Hybrid B2PLYP Method: Analytic Second Derivatives and Benchmark Studies journal June 2010
DSD-BLYP: A General Purpose Double Hybrid Density Functional Including Spin Component Scaling and Dispersion Correction journal October 2010
Direct production of OH radicals upon CH overtone activation of (CH 3 ) 2 COO Criegee intermediates journal December 2014
Free radical modelling studies during the UK TORCH Campaign in Summer 2003 journal January 2007
Communication: New insight into the barrier governing CO2 formation from OH + CO journal May 2011

Cited By (11)

Effect of unsaturated substituents in the reaction of Criegee intermediates with water vapor journal January 2018
Temperature and isotope effects in the reaction of CH 3 CHOO with methanol journal January 2019
Tunneling effects in the unimolecular decay of (CH 3 ) 2 COO Criegee intermediates to OH radical products journal April 2017
Nascent energy distribution of the Criegee intermediate CH 2 OO from direct dynamics calculations of primary ozonide dissociation journal May 2018
Perspective: Ring-polymer instanton theory journal May 2018
Conformational preferences of Criegee intermediates: Isopropyl substituted carbonyl oxide journal August 2018
Electronic spectroscopy of methyl vinyl ketone oxide: A four-carbon unsaturated Criegee intermediate from isoprene ozonolysis journal December 2018
Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy of Criegee intermediates: The conformational behaviour of butyraldehyde oxide journal March 2019
Selective deuteration illuminates the importance of tunneling in the unimolecular decay of Criegee intermediates to hydroxyl radical products journal November 2017
Unimolecular decay dynamics of Criegee intermediates: Energy-resolved rates, thermal rates, and their atmospheric impact journal December 2019
Perspective: Ring-polymer instanton theory text January 2018