title: Reaction mechanism and kinetics of the NCN+NO reaction: comparison of theory and experiment.
abstract: The rate constants for the NCN + NO reaction have been measured by laser photolysis/laser-induced fluorescence technique in the temperature range of 254-353 K in the presence of He (40-600 Torr) and N2 (30-528 Torr) buffer gases. The NCN radical was produced from the photodissociation of NCN3 at 193 nm and monitored with a dye laser at 329.01 nm. The reaction was found to be strongly positive-pressure dependent with negative-temperature dependence, as was reported previously. The experimental data could be reasonably accounted for by dual-channel Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus calculations based on the predicted potential-energy surface using the modified Gaussian-2 method. The reaction is predicted to occur via weak intermediates, cis- and trans-NCNNO, in the 2A" state which crosses with the 2A' state containing more stable cis- and trans-NCNNO isomers. The high barriers for the fragmentation of these isomers and their trapping in the 2A' state by collisional stabilization give rise to the observed positive-pressure dependence and negative-temperature effect. The predicted energy barrier for the fragmentation of the cis-NCNNO (2A') to CN + N2O also allows us to quantitatively account for the rate constant previously measured for the reverse process CN + N2O --> NCN + NO.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Chemistry and Center for Interdisciplinary Molecular Science, Chiao Tung University, Taiwan 30010.
authors.forename: Chih-Liang
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Shiang Yang
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Tseng
authors.forename: Tzu Yi
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Niann S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Z F
authors.initials: ZF
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Lin