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Photofragmentation of dichloromethanol Cl2CHOH along C-O and C-Cl cleavages: a theoretical study
Max Mühlhäuser1, Melanie Schnell, Sigrid D Peyerimhoff
1Institut fur Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie der Universität Bonn, Wegelerstrasse 12, 53115 Bonn, Germany.
Abstract:
Multireference configuration interaction calculations are carried out for ground and excited states of dichloromethanol, Cl2CHOH, to investigate two important photofragmentation processes relevant to atmospheric chemistry. Five low-lying excited states (1(1)A", 2(1)A', 1(3)A", 2(3)A" and 1(3)A') in the energy range between 6.4 and 7.5 eV are found to be highly repulsive for C-Cl elongation, leading to ClCHOH (X2A) and Cl (X2P). Photodissociation along the C-O bond resulting in CHCl2 (X2A') and OH (X2II) has to overcome a barrier of about 0.5 eV because the low-lying excited states 1(1)A", 1(3)A' and 1(3)A" become repulsive only after the C-O bond is elongated by about 0.3 A.
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