CHEMICAL-DYNAMICS OF THE REACTION OF O(1D2) WITH CH3F

The OH(X2-PI, nu" = 0, 1) internal state distributions following the reaction of electronically excited oxygen atoms with CH3F have been measured using laser-induced fluorescence. While the vibrational distribution is a little cooler, the rotational distributions of OH turn out to be very similar to those of OH following the reaction of O(1D2) with CH4. Observation of the propensity for population of the PI(A') LAMBDA-doublet sublevel suggests that reaction proceeds via an insertion/elimination mechanism. Information theoretical analysis used in conjuction with OH fragmentation data indicates that the HF elimination dominates OH product of the O(1D2)/CH3F interaction. The vibrational distribution of OH gives about the same degree of excitation as that of HF determined previously.