title: Reaction dynamics of CN + O2 --> NCO + O(3P2).
abstract: We have used oxygen Rydberg time-of-flight spectroscopy to carry out a crossed molecular beam study of the CN + O2 reaction at collision energies of 3.1 and 4.1 kcal/mol. The O(3P2) products were tagged by excitation to high-n Rydberg levels and subsequently field ionized at a detector. The translational energy distributions were broad, indicating that the NCO is formed with a wide range of internal excitation, and the angular distribution was forward-backward symmetric, indicating the participation of NCOO intermediates with lifetimes comparable to or longer than their rotational periods. Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus modeling of the dissociation of NCOO to NCO + O suggests that Do(NC-OO) > or = 38 kcal/mol, which is consistent with several theoretical calculations. Implications for the competing CO + NO channel are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Baker Laboratory, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-1301, USA.
authors.forename: Mark F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Witinski
authors.forename: Marívi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ortiz-Suárez
authors.forename: H Floyd
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Davis