Photodissociation of CH₂ClCH₂I at 308 nm

Abstract

The technique of photofragmentation translational spectroscopy has been used to study the photodissociation of CH₂ClCH₂I at an excitation wavelength of 308 nm. The exclusive dissociation pathway is C–I bond breakage with formation of CH₂ClCH₂ and I(²P_3/2). The centre-of-mass translational energy distribution of the photofragments reveals that an average of about 50% of the excess energy appears in translation. The angular distribution of dissociation products with respect to the laser polarization indicates that the photodissociation process proceeds via a parallel transition—i.e., the transition moment must be nearly parallel to the C–I bond. Exclusive production of ground state I(²P_3/2) with a parallel polarization dependence is unexpected based on the prevailing picture for alkyl iodide photodissociation.