Production and bimolecular quenching of excited CN radicals from multiphoton electronic excitation of benzoyl cyanide

Abstract We report the production of CN(B 2 σ v = 0,1,2) from the 266 nm multiphoton excitation of benzoyl cyanide. The formation of CN (B 2 σ S) involves the absorption of at least two photons. The bimolecular quenching rate of excited CN is found to be (1.5 ± 0.5) × 10 −10 cm 3 /molecule s, independent of the vibrational quantum number.