Nascent product states in the photoinitiated reaction of O3 and H2O

The rotational, vibrational and fine‐structure state distributions for the reaction 16O(1D)+ H218O →16OH +18OH, triggered by 266 nm photolysis of O3, have been measured under conditions where less than 1% of the nascent fragments experienced collisions prior to detection. The distributions are qualitatively different than those reported earlier for 266 nm photolysis, which were evidently affected by collisions. The rotational and vibrational state distributions are similar to recent 248 nm photolysis experiments, but with differences attributed to collisional and/or energetic effects in those experiments. The ‘‘new’’ 16OH is formed with vibrational populations in the ratio 0.39(v=0):0.29(v=1):0.3(v≥2). Gaussian rotational energy distributions peaked near N=12 give average rotational energies of 〈Erot〉 = 3440 and 2780 cm−1 for 16OH v=0 and v=1, respectively. The ‘‘old’’ 18OH is much colder with vibrational populations 0.94(v=0):0.06(v=1) and a 18OH v=0 Gaussian rotational energy distribution characterized ...