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Das OH-Radikal, bestehend aus einem Sauerstoff- und einem Wasserstoffatom, ist verantwortlich für den Selbstreinigungsmechanismus der Atmosphäre. Als Oxidationsmittel reagiert es mit praktisch allen Spurengasen, wie z. B. dem giftigen Kohlenmonoxid, dem Treibhausgas Methan und dem Schwefeldioxid, und macht sie wasserlöslich, so daß sie im Regen gelöst ausgewaschen werden können (Waschmitteleffekt). Welche Schlüsselstellung das OH-Radikal in der Atmosphärenchemie hat, beschreibt der Chemiker Franz Josef Comes. Gleichzeitig stellt er das weltweit empfindlichste Absolutverfahren zur Bestimmung von troposphärischen OH-Konzentrationen vor, das in Frankfurt entwikkelt und zur Zeit getestet wird.
Photofragmentation spectroscopy—the study of "half collisions" with polarized light of subdoppler line width—opens a window to look into the structure of molecules. The energy partitioning among the particular degrees of freedom of the products of the fragmentation reaction is described by the scalar properties, the direction and magnitude of a particular type of motion is described by the vector properties. The measurement of the scalar and vector properties allows a pictorial view of the intermediate state. The forces which make the fragments fly apart or rotate and vibrate can be "seen" from the line shapes. Information on the unstable intermediate state is gained from the stable fragments long after the dissociation of the parent molecule. In particular, information on the "lifetime" of the intermediate on a femtosecond time scale can be obtained.
A number of molecules, mainly three and four atomic, have been studied by this technique. Hydrogen peroxide has shown up as a textbook example. A complete analysis was possible including not only correlation of different types of fragment motion but also a correlation of the two coincident particles formed from the same parent molecule. The experimental results are in full agreement with recent calculations of the dynamics of the fragmentation on newly obtained potential energy surfaces. Hydrogen peroxide shows a strong dependence of its potential energy on the dihedral angle in the two electronic states amenable to laser excitation. This experiment further demonstrates that an analysis is also possible if two states are excited simultaneously.
Another good example is the fragmentation of hydrazoic acid for which also coincident pair correlation has been treated. Here again the results agree excellently with a qualitative picture which can be drawn from recently calculated ab initio potential energy surfaces. The HN3 example is much more complicated than the former one due to its higher structured upper potential energy surface. Strong rotational excitation is observed in the N2 fragment leaving the NH fragment rotationally cold.
The treatment of vector correlations in molecular photofragmentation is a powerful tool for the study of the dynamics of molecular dissociation reactions.
Excitation of CO molecules into the lowest vibrational level of the B1Σ+ electronic state by absorption of the (B 1Σ+υ′=0 →X 1Σ+ ,υ′′=0) resonance band at 1150 Å has been studied under various experimental conditions by observing the steady state fluorescence of the (B 1Σ+→A1Π) Angstrom bands. Stern-Volmer plots of the fluorescence intensities at the addition of various foreign gases yielded straight lines whose slopes k̃qм = kqм · τeff were strongly dependent on the CO sample pressure. This effect was found to be due to changes of the effective radiative lifetime of the B 1Σ+υ′=0 because of resonance trapping of the (0,0) band of the (B → X) fluorescence. The CO(B 1Σ+υ′=0) molecules are found to be quenched by He, Ne, Ar, H2 and D2 with effective collision cross sections of 0.23, 0.48, 22.4, 10.7, and 11.4 Å2, respectively, at 298 °K. In addition, an approximate value for the ratio ABA/ (ABA+ABX)of the radiative transition probabilities of the (B → A) and (B → X) transitions could be derived from the measurements.
The application of laser induced fluorescence (LIF) in the uv to monitor tropospheric OH concentrations is limited for several reasons. In general the sensitivity of this method increases with the laser intensity. But at the low OH concentrations present in the atmosphere the beginning nonlinearity of the absorption (saturation effect) severely restricts the use of higher laser intensities. The high sensitivity of the LIF technique can be further compromised by the presence of an OH interference signal. This signal is generated by the monitoring laser light itself from laser photolysis of ambient ozone and the succeeding reaction of the photolysis product O (1D) with water to produce hydroxyl radicals. The results of the calculations are presented in a diagram from which the range of laser parameters can be deduced, which can be applied with confidence to monitor OH by the LIF method. The maximum number of signal counts for these working conditions is in the range of 10-3 per laser pulse.
Influence of rotational relaxation on tropospheric OH laser induced fluorescence measurements
(1982)
Rotational relaxation of OH molecules in the 2II electronic ground state has been observed to occur in collisions with water molecules with gas kinetic probability. It causes an additional contribution to the already well known sources of interference when LIF is used to monitor tropospheric OH. As the laser generated OH is originally produced mostly in high rotational states, the fast relaxation phenomenon leads to a further population of OH in low rotational states. These states are used to monitor tropospheric OH by spectroscopic methods. The observed effect therefore increases the interference. A mathematical analysis is presented, revealing the effect of all relevant parameters.
Stimulated emission from chemically formed excited iodine molecules has been observed. The emission originates from the vibrational state ν′ = 55 of I2(B 3 II). The excited molecules are produced by a three body recombination reaction.
