Dispersed Fluorescence Spectroscopy of Jet-Cooled Isobutoxy and 2‑Methyl-1-butoxy Radicals

• Published in: The journal of physical chemistry. A, Molecules, spectroscopy, kinetics, environment, & general theory Molecules, spectroscopy, kinetics, environment, & general theory, 2016-09, Vol.120 (34), p.6761-6767
• Main Authors: Reza, Md. Asmaul, Paul, Anam C, Reilly, Neil J, Alam, Jahangir, Liu, Jinjun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1089-5639; 1520-5215
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.6b06445

We report dispersed fluorescence (DF) spectra of the isobutoxy and 2-methyl-1-butoxy radicals produced by photolysis of corresponding nitrites in supersonic jet expansion. Different vibrational structures have been observed in the DF spectra when different vibronic bands in the laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) spectra of each radical were pumped, which suggests that those vibronic bands be assigned to different conformers. Spectra simulated using calculated vibrational frequencies and Franck–Condon factors well reproduce the experimentally observed ones and support the assignment of the vibronic bands in the LIF spectra to the two lowest-energy conformers of each radical. DF spectra obtained by pumping the B̃ ← X̃ origin bands of the LIF spectra are dominated by CO stretch progressions because of the large difference in CO bond length between the ground (X̃) and the second excited (B̃) electronic states. Furthermore, with non-CO stretch bands pumped, the DF spectra are dominated by progressions of combination bands of the CO stretch and the pumped modes as a result of Duschinsky mixing. ÖX̃ separation of both conformers of the isobutoxy radical has also been determined in the experiment.