Mark R. Ellenberger

Reactive scattering of van der Waals molecules. The formation of HBrCl2 from the reaction of HBr with (Cl2)3

Using the new crossed neutral molecular beam apparatus which has been constructed at the University of Minnesota, an extensive study was made of the interaction of an HBr beam with a chlorine beam containing small polymers. It was possible to resolve the van der Waals bond exchange reaction of HBr with chlorine trimer to form HBrCl2. Angular and velocity distributions of scattered HBrCl2, (Cl2)2, and Cl2 have been measured and transformed to provide centre-of-mass flux contour maps. The HBrCl2 is observed as a single narrow peak, scattered backwards with respect to the initial motion of the HBr. A portion of the scattered Cl2 can be attributed to this reaction, which is observed to exhibit a significant fraction (∼ 50 per cent) of the available energy in product translation. A portion of the scattered (Cl2)2 can be attributed to a separate collision-induced dissociation process of the (Cl2)3. A simple model is proposed for the collision processes of HBr + (Cl2)3 which consistently explains all the dynamic...