Absolute rate coefficient determination and reaction mechanism investigation for the reaction of Cl atoms with CH2I2 and the oxidation mechanism of CH2I radicals.

The gas-phase reaction of atomic chlorine with diiodomethane was studied over the temperature range 273-363 K with the very low-pressure reactor (VLPR) technique. The reaction takes place in a Knudsen reactor at pressures below 3 mTorr, where the steady-state concentration of both reactants and stable products is continuously measured by electron-impact mass spectrometry. The absolute rate coefficient as a function of temperature was given by k = (4.70 +/- 0.65) x 10-11 exp[-(241 +/- 33)/T] cm3molecule-1s-1, in the low-pressure regime. The quoted uncertainties are given at a 95% level of confidence (2sigma) and include systematic errors. The reaction occurs via two pathways: the abstraction of a hydrogen atom leading to HCl and the abstraction of an iodine atom leading to ICl. The HCl yield was measured to be ca. 55 +/- 10%. The results suggest that the reaction proceeds via the intermediate CH2I2-Cl adduct formation, with a I-Cl bond strength of 51.9 +/- 15 kJ mol-1, calculated at the B3P86/aug-cc-pVTZ-PP level of theory. Furthermore, the oxidation reactions of CHI2 and CH2I radicals were studied by introducing an excess of molecular oxygen in the Knudsen reactor. HCHO and HCOOH were the primary oxidation products indicating that the reactions with O2 proceed via the intermediate peroxy radical formation and the subsequent elimination of either IO radical or I atom. HCHO and HCOOH were also detected by FT-IR, as the reaction products of photolytically generated CH2I radicals with O2 in a static cell, which supports the proposed oxidation mechanism. Since the photolysis of CH2I2 is about 3 orders of magnitude faster than its reactive loss by Cl atoms, the title reaction does not constitute an important tropospheric sink for CH2I2.