UV photodissociation of oxalyl chloride yields four fragments from one photon absorption

The photodissociation of oxalyl chloride, (ClCO)(2), has been studied near 235 nm using the photofragment imaging technique. Observed products include both ground state Cl (P-2(3/2)) and spin-orbit excited Cl*(P-2(1/2)) chlorine atoms and ground electronic state CO molecules. The rotational distribution obtained for the CO v=0 product is peaked at about J=30 and extends beyond J=50. Photofragment images were recorded for both chlorine atom fine structure components as well as many rotational levels of the CO v=0,yielding state-resolved angular and translational energy distributions. The recoil speed distribution for the Cl* exhibits a dominant fast component, with a translational energy distribution peaking at about 48 kJ/mol. The ground state chlorine atom showed two components in its speed distribution, with the slow component dominant. The corresponding translational energy distribution peaked at 10 kJ/mol but extended to 80 kJ/mol. The total average translational energy release into the Cl product is 34 kJ/mol. Similarly, the low rotational levels of the CO showed only a slow component, the intermediate rotational levels showed a bimodal speed distribution, and the highest rotational levels showed only the fast component. The fast components of both chlorine atom product and the higher rotational levels of the CO show an anisotropic angular distribution, while all slow fragments show a nearly isotropic angular distribution. These observations suggest a novel dissociation mechanism in which the first step is an impulsive three-body dissociation yielding predominantly Cl*, rotationally excited CO and chloroformyl radical ClCO, with only modest momentum transfer to the latter species. Most of the remaining ClCO undergoes subsequent dissociation yielding low rotational levels of CO and little translational energy release. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.