NASA NTRS1991
The C2 and C3 radicals are prominent emission in the visible region of cometary spectra. Observational evidence exists that suggests these radicals are formed as granddaughter fragments in the photolysis of more stable molecules. Likely candidates for these parent molecules ar C2H2, C3H4 (allene), and CH3C2H (propyne). Recent laboratory studies were performed on all of these parent molecules and they indicate that they can indeed produce the observed cometary radicals. In the case of C2H2, the laboratory evidence suggest that C2 is formed via the following mechanisms: (1) C2H2 + photon(193 nm) yields C2H + H; and (2) C2H + photon(193 nm) yields C2 + H. Evidence is presented to show that the C2 radical produced in the second reaction occurs in a variety of electronic, vibrational, and rotational states. It is argued that this is a result of conical intersections in the potential energy curves and the density of states associated with these curves. Since this is a property of the C2H radical similar initial product state distributions are expected to occur in comets. This means that any models of the C2 emission may have to start off with rotationally excited C2 radicals in both the singlet and the triplet manifolds. When C3H4 (allene) and CH3C2H (propyne) were photolyzed, the C3 radical is formed. In the allene case, laboratory evidence shows that the C3 radical is formed via the following mechanism: (1) C3H4 + photon(193 nm) yields C3H2 + H2; and (2) C3H2 + photon(193 nm) yields C3 + H2. More C3 is formed in the case of allene than in the propyne case, even though the absorption cross section for propyne is a factor of 2 larger. This suggests that competing dissociation pathways are present during the photolysis of propyne that are not available to allene. The observed quantum state distributions of the C3 product were the same for both parent molecules, indicating that the same intermediate state is involved. These observations can be understood if the excited propyne formed in the initial absorption step isomerizes to excited allene before it dissociates to the same daughter compound. This postulate was tested by comparing RRKM calculations of the isomerization rate of excited propyne versus the decomposition rate to other products.