MOLECULAR-BEAM STUDY ON INFRARED MULTIPHOTON DISSOCIATION OF OCTAFLUOROCYCLOBUTANE

Unimolecular dissociation dynamics of octafluorocyclobutane has been s tudied using photofragmentation translational spectroscopy. The produc t translational energy distribution for the reaction cyclo-C4F8-->2C(2 )F(4) peaks at 31 kJ/mol with an average of 40 kJ/mol, which amounts t o about 30% of the exit channel barrier. The energy partitioning to th e relative translation of the products and dynamics of the dissociatio n have been discussed on the basis of the impulsive models with help o f transition state structures calculated using an ab initio molecular orbital method.