Photodissociation of vinyl cyanide at 193 nm: Nascent product distributions of the molecular elimination channels

The photodissociation dynamics of vinyl cyanide (H2CCHCN, acrylonitrile) and deuterated vinyl cyanide (D2CCDCN) at 193 nm are examined using time-resolved Fourier transform infrared emission spectroscopy. Prior photofragment translational spectroscopy studies [D. A. Blank , J. Chem. Phys. 108, 5784 (1998)] of the dissociation have observed the presence of four main dissociation channels; two molecular and two radical in nature. However, with the exception of a < 0.01 quantum yield determined for the CN radical loss channel, the branching ratios of the remaining three elimination channels were not measured. The time-resolved emission spectra, including those from the deuterated samples, revealed the presence of acetylene, hydrogen cyanide (HCN), as well as the energetically less stable isomer hydrogen isocyanide (HNC). Acetylene is found in two distinct energetic distributions, suggesting that both three- and four-centered elimination reactions are occurring significantly in the dissociation. In contrast to prior ab initio studies that have suggested the dominant nature of the three-center elimination of molecular hydrogen (H-2) and cyanovinylidene (:C = CHCN), we find this reaction channel to be of little importance as there is no evidence to support any significant presence of rovibrationally excited cyanoacetylene. Spectral modeling of the product distributions allows for the first experimental determination of the relative occurrence of the three-centered (resulting in HCN+vinylidene) versus four-centered (HNC+acetylene) elimination channels as 3.34 to 1.00, in contrast to the previously calculated value of 126:1. Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus analysis depicts that the transition state energy of the four-centered reaction should be about 10 kcal mole(-1) lower than the three-centered reaction.