Three-body dissociations: The photodissociation of dimethyl sulfoxide at 193 nm
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab., CA (United States); and others
When a molecule with two equivalent chemical bonds is excited above the threshold for dissociation of both bonds, how the rupture of the two bonds is temporally coupled becomes a salient question. Following absorption at 193 nm dimethyl sulfoxide (CH{sub 3}SOCH{sub 3}) contains enough energy to rupture both C-S bonds. This can happen in a stepwise (reaction 1) or concerted (reaction 2) fashion where the authors use rotation of the SOCH{sub 3} intermediate prior to dissociation to define a stepwise dissociation: (1) CH{sub 3}SOCH{sub 3} {r_arrow} 2CH{sub 3} + SO; (2a) CH{sub 3}SOCH{sub 3} {r_arrow} CH{sub 3} + SOCH{sub 3}; and (2b) SOCH{sub 3} {r_arrow} SO + CH{sub 3}. Recently, the dissociation of dimethyl sulfoxide following absorption at 193 nm was suggested to involve simultaneous cleavage of both C-S bonds on an excited electronic surface. This conclusion was inferred from laser induced fluorescence (LIF) and resonant multiphoton ionization (2+1 REMPI) measurements of the internal energy content in the CH{sub 3} and SO photoproducts and a near unity quantum yield measured for SO. Since this type of concerted three body dissociation is very interesting and a rather rare event in photodissociation dynamics, the authors chose to investigate this system using the technique of photofragment translational spectroscopy at beamline 9.0.2.1. The soft photoionization provided by the VUV undulator radiation allowed the authors to probe the SOCH{sub 3} intermediate which had not been previously observed and provided good evidence that the dissociation of dimethyl sulfoxide primarily proceeds via a two step dissociation, reaction 2.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley Lab., CA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 603618
- Report Number(s):
- LBNL--39981; ON: DE97007345
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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