Changjian Xie

Vibronic origin of sulfur mass-independent isotope effect in photoexcitation of SO2 and the implications to the early earth’s atmosphere

Signatures of mass-independent isotope fractionation (MIF) are found in the oxygen (16O,17O,18O) and sulfur (32S, 33S, 34S, 36S) isotope systems and serve as important tracers of past and present atmospheric processes. These unique isotope signatures signify the breakdown of the traditional theory of isotope fractionation, but the physical chemistry of these isotope effects remains poorly understood. We report the production of large sulfur isotope MIF, with Δ33S up to 78‰ and Δ36S up to 110‰, from the broadband excitation of SO2 in the 250–350-nm absorption region. Acetylene is used to selectively trap the triplet-state SO2 (3B1), which results from intersystem crossing from the excited singlet (1A2/1B1) states. The observed MIF signature differs considerably from that predicted by isotopologue-specific absorption cross-sections of SO2 and is insensitive to the wavelength region of excitation (above or below 300 nm), suggesting that the MIF originates not from the initial excitation of SO2 to the singlet states but from an isotope selective spin–orbit interaction between the singlet (1A2/1B1) and triplet (3B1) manifolds. Calculations based on high-level potential energy surfaces of the multiple excited states show a considerable lifetime anomaly for 33SO2 and 36SO2 for the low vibrational levels of the 1A2 state. These results demonstrate that the isotope selectivity of accidental near-resonance interactions between states is of critical importance in understanding the origin of MIF in photochemical systems.

Revealing atom-radical reactivity at low temperature through the N + OH reaction.

Rates have been measured for a chemical transformation of interstellar interest in which both reagents are unstable. More than 100 reactions between stable molecules and free radicals have been shown to remain rapid at low temperatures. In contrast, reactions between two unstable radicals have received much less attention due to the added complexity of producing and measuring excess radical concentrations. We performed kinetic experiments on the barrierless N(4S) + OH(2Π) → H(2S) + NO(2Π) reaction in a supersonic flow (Laval nozzle) reactor. We used a microwave-discharge method to generate atomic nitrogen and a relative-rate method to follow the reaction kinetics. The measured rates agreed well with the results of exact and approximate quantum mechanical calculations. These results also provide insight into the gas-phase formation mechanisms of molecular nitrogen in interstellar clouds.

Quasi-classical trajectory study of the HO + CO → H + CO2 reaction on a new ab initio based potential energy surface.

We report extensive quasi-classical trajectory calculations of the HO + CO → H + CO(2) reaction on a newly developed potential energy surface based on a large number of UCCSD(T)-F12/AVTZ calculations. This complex-forming reaction is known for its unusual kinetics and dynamics because of its unique potential energy surface, which is dominated by the HOCO wells flanked by an entrance channel bottleneck and a transition state leading to the H + CO(2) products. It was found that the thermal rate coefficients are in reasonably good agreement with known experimental data in both low and high pressure limits. Excitation of the OH vibration is shown to enhance reactivity, due apparently to its promoting effect over the transition state between the HOCO intermediate and the H + CO(2) product. On the other hand, neither CO vibrational excitation nor rotational excitation in either CO or OH has a significant effect on reactivity, in agreement with experiment. However, significant discrepancies have been found between theory and the available molecular beam experiments. For example, the calculated translational energy distribution of the products substantially underestimates the experiment. In addition, the forward bias in the differential cross section observed in the experiment was not reproduced theoretically. While the origin of the discrepancies is still not clear, it is argued that a quantum mechanical treatment of the dynamics might be needed.

Nonadiabatic Tunneling in Photodissociation of Phenol

Using recently developed full-dimensional coupled quasi-diabatic ab initio potential energy surfaces including four electronic ((1)ππ, (1)ππ*, 1(1)πσ*, and 2(1)πσ*) states, the tunneling dynamics of phenol photodissociation via its first excited singlet state (S1 ← S0) is investigated quantum mechanically using a three-dimensional model. The lifetimes of several low-lying vibrational states are examined and compared with experiment. The deuteration of the phenoxyl hydrogen is found to dramatically increase the lifetime, attesting to the tunneling nature of the nonadiabatic dissociation. Importantly, it is shown that owing to the conical intersection topography tunneling in this system cannot be described in the standard adiabatic approximation, which eschews the geometric phase effect since the nonadiabatically computed lifetimes, validated by comparison with experiment, differ significantly from those obtained in that limit.

Full-Dimensional Quantum State-to-State Nonadiabatic Dynamics for Photodissociation of Ammonia in its A-Band.

Full-dimensional state-to-state quantum dynamics of the photodissociation of NH3(A1A2″) is investigated on newly developed coupled diabatic potential energy surfaces. For the first time, the rovibrational distributions of the nonadiabatically produced NH2(X2B1) product have been determined quantum mechanically. In agreement with experimental observations, NH2(X2B1) produced from the 00 and 21 states of NH3(A1A2″) was found to be dominated by its ground vibrational state with an N = Ka propensity, shedding light on the quantum-state-resolved nonadiabatic dynamics facilitated by conical intersections and setting the stage for the elucidation of vibrationally mediated photodissociation.

Quasi-classical trajectory study of the H + CO2 → HO + CO reaction on a new ab initio based potential energy surface

A detailed quasi-classical trajectory study of the H + CO(2) → HO + CO reaction is reported on an accurate potential energy surface based on ab initio data. The influence of the vibrational and rotational excitations of CO(2) was investigated up to the collision energy of 2.35 eV. It was found that the total reaction integral cross section increases monotonically with the collision energy, consistent with experimental results. The excitation of the CO(2) bending vibration enhances the reaction, while the excitation in its asymmetric stretching vibration inhibits the reaction. The calculated thermal rate constants are in excellent agreement with experiment. At the state-to-state level, the rotational state distributions of the HO product are in good agreement with experimental results, while those for the CO product are much hotter than measurements. The calculated differential cross sections are dominated by forward scattering, suggesting that the lifetime of the HOCO intermediate may not be sufficiently long to render the reaction completely statistical.

Ab initio determination of potential energy surfaces for the first two UV absorption bands of SO2

Three-dimensional potential energy surfaces for the two lowest singlet (Ã(1)B1 and B̃(1)A2) and two lowest triplet (ã(3)B1 and b̃(3)A2) states of SO2 have been determined at the Davidson corrected internally contracted multi-reference configuration interaction level with the augmented correlation-consistent polarized triple-zeta basis set (icMRCI+Q∕AVTZ). The non-adiabatically coupled singlet states, which are responsible for the complex Clements bands of the B band, are expressed in a 2 × 2 quasi-diabatic representation. The triplet state potential energy surfaces, which are responsible for the weak A band, were constructed in the adiabatic representation. The absorption spectrum spanning both the A and B bands, which is calculated with a three-state non-adiabatic coupled Hamiltonian, is in good agreement with experiment, thus validating the potential energy surfaces and their couplings.

New ab initio potential energy surface for BrH2 and rate constants for the H + HBr → H2 + Br abstraction reaction

A global potential energy surface (PES) for the electronic ground state of the BrH(2) system was constructed based on the multireference configuration interaction (MRCI) method including the Davidsons correction using a large basis set. In addition, the spin-orbit correction were computed using the Breit-Pauli Hamiltonian and the unperturbed MRCI wavefunctions in the Br + H(2) channel and the transition state region. Adding the correction to the ground state potential, the lowest spin-orbit correlated adiabatic potential was obtained. The characters of the new potential are discussed. Accurate initial state specified rate constants for the H + HBr → H(2) + Br abstraction reaction were calculated using a time-dependent wave packet method. The predicted rate constants were found to be in excellent agreement with the available experimental values and much better than those obtained from a previous PES.

Full-Dimensional Quantum Dynamics of Vibrationally Mediated Photodissociation of NH3 and ND3 on Coupled Ab Initio Potential Energy Surfaces: Absorption Spectra and NH2(Ã2A1)/NH2(X̃2B1) Branching Ratios

Vibrationally mediated photodissociation of NH3 and ND3 in the A band allows the exploration of the excited-state potential energy surface in regions that are not accessible from the ground vibrational state of these polyatomic systems. Using our recently developed coupled ab initio potential energy surfaces in a quasi-diabatic representation, we report here a full-dimensional quantum characterization of the à ← X̃ absorption spectra for vibrationally excited NH3 and ND3 and the corresponding nonadiabatic dissociation dynamics into the NH2(Ã(2)A1) + H and NH2(X̃(2)B1) + H channels. The predissociative resonances in the absorption spectra have been assigned with appropriate quantum numbers. The NH2(Ã(2)A1)/NH2(X̃(2)B1) branching ratio was found to be mildly sensitive to the initial vibrational excitation prior to photolysis. Implications for interpreting experimental data are discussed.

Communication: On the competition between adiabatic and nonadiabatic dynamics in vibrationally mediated ammonia photodissociation in its A band

Non-adiabatic processes play an important role in photochemistry, but the mechanism for conversion of electronic energy to chemical energy is still poorly understood. To explore the possibility of vibrational control of non-adiabatic dynamics in a prototypical photoreaction, namely, the A-band photodissociation of NH3(X̃(1)A1), full-dimensional state-to-state quantum dynamics of symmetric or antisymmetric stretch excited NH3(X̃(1)A1) is investigated on recently developed coupled diabatic potential energy surfaces. The experimentally observed H atom kinetic energy distributions are reproduced. However, contrary to previous inferences, the NH2(Ã(2)A1)/NH2(X̃(2)B1) branching ratio is found to be small regardless of the initial preparation of NH3(X̃(1)A1), while the internal state distribution of the preeminent fragment, NH2(X̃(2)B1), is found to depend strongly on the initial vibrational excitation of NH3(X̃(1)A1). The slow H atoms in photodissociation mediated by the antisymmetric stretch fundamental state are due to energy sequestered in the internally excited NH2(X̃(2)B1) fragment, rather than in NH2(Ã(2)A1) as previously proposed. The high internal excitation of the NH2(X̃(2)B1) fragment is attributed to the torques exerted on the molecule as it passes through the conical intersection seam to the ground electronic state of NH3. Thus in this system, contrary to previous assertions, the control of electronic state branching by selective excitation of ground state vibrational modes is concluded to be ineffective. The juxtaposition of precise quantum mechanical results with complementary results based on quasi-classical surface hopping trajectories provides significant insights into the non-adiabatic process.