Isotope effects in the vibrational deactivation of large molecules

Abstract

Collisional deactivation of highly vibrationally excited gas phase toluene‐d8 and benzene‐d6 pumped at 248 nm, has been investigated by monitoring the time resolved infrared fluorescence from the C–D stretch modes near 4.3 μm. For toluene‐d8, energy transfer data were obtained for about 20 collider gases, including unexcited toluene‐d8; for benzene‐d6, only a few colliders were investigated. For both systems the data were analyzed by an inversion technique that converts the fluorescence decay to the bulk average energy, from which is calculated the average energy transferred per collision, 〈〈ΔE〉〉inv. Data obtained earlier for benzene‐d0 were reanalyzed and the revised results are reported. Results for both normal and deuterated excited species show 〈〈ΔE〉〉inv to be nearly directly proportional to the vibrational energy 〈〈E〉〉inv of the excited molecule from 5 000 to 25 000 cm−1. However, for pure toluene‐d8, benzene‐d6, and a few other collider gases at high energies, the slope of the 〈〈ΔE〉〉inv vs 〈〈E〉〉inv curve is reduced and even becomes negative at sufficiently high energies. The results obtained for normal and deuterium‐containing species are discussed in terms of possible quantum effects and mechanisms for energy transfer. In particular, it is considered likely that V–T/R energy transfer dominates over V–V, and the lowest frequency vibrational modes are the conduits for the energy transfer, in agreement with results for small molecules. Attention is called to a fundamental difference between classical and quantum statistics and how this difference may adversely affect classical trajectory simulations of large molecules.