THE DISSOCIATION-ENERGY OF TIO DETERMINED FROM A CROSSED-BEAM STUDY OF THE TI-]TIO+N REACTION(NO)

The Ti + NO --> TiO + N reaction has been studied with pulsed, crossed , supersonic molecular beams, at relative translational energies betwe en 0.2 and 0.6 eV, with the Ti, NO reactants and the TiO product being probed by laser-induced fluorescence. The reactive channel Ti(F-3(J)) + NO(X (2) Pi(r)) --> TiO(a (1) Delta) + N(S-4(3/2)) has been identif ied through the detection of the beta(c (1) Phi <-- a (1) Delta) Delta upsilon = 0 transitions of TiO. Analysis of the TiO(a (1) Delta) rovi brational energy close to the threshold for production of upsilon = 1 leads to a reaction exoergicity, Delta epsilon(0), of -0.37(-0.05)(+0. 07) eV for the production of ground-state products TiO(X (3) Delta) N(S-4(3/2)) and to a TiO bond-dissociation energy, D-0(TiO), equal to 6.87(-0.05)(+0.07) eV.