Walmsley T, Unwin J, Allum F, Bari S, Boll R, Borne K, Brouard M, Bucksbaum P, Ekanayake N, Erk B, Forbes R, Howard A J, Eng-Johnsson P, Lee J W L, Liu Z, Manschwetus B, Mason R, Passow C, Peschel J, Rivas D, Rolles D, Rörig A, Rouzée A, Vallance C, Ziaee F, Burt M
Chemistry Research Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3TA, United Kingdom.
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestr. 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany.
J Chem Phys. 2023 Oct 14;159(14). doi: 10.1063/5.0172749.
Site-selective probing of iodine 4d orbitals at 13.1 nm was used to characterize the photolysis of CH2I2 and CH2BrI initiated at 202.5 nm. Time-dependent fragment ion momenta were recorded using Coulomb explosion imaging mass spectrometry and used to determine the structural dynamics of the dissociating molecules. Correlations between these fragment momenta, as well as the onset times of electron transfer reactions between them, indicate that each molecule can undergo neutral three-body photolysis. For CH2I2, the structural evolution of the neutral molecule was simultaneously characterized along the C-I and I-C-I coordinates, demonstrating the sensitivity of these measurements to nuclear motion along multiple degrees of freedom.
