SURPRISING POSITIVE CORRELATION BETWEEN ROTATIONAL AND VIBRATIONAL-EXCITATION IN THE H-]HD+CCL3 REACTION(CDCL3)

The rotational quantum state distributions of the HD product of the HCDCl3 --> HD+CCl3 reaction at 1.6 eV collision energy have been measur ed using coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering. We observe HD products in v' = 0, 1 and 2 with the fraction of available energy in HD rotati on increasing as the energy in HD vibration increases. Despite the pre sumed pseudo-atomic nature of the CCl3 radical in the reaction, the be havior of this reaction is closer to that of the H + alkane hydrogen a tom abstraction reactions than that of the H + HX --> H-2 + X (X = Cl, Br, 1) reactions.