On an electron diffraction study of the structure of the dibromomethylene radical

The molecular structures of two states of the dibromomethylene radical have been observed by the technique of gas phase electron diffraction. The radicals were produced by the thermal decomposition of tetrabromomethane utilizing an oven nozzle within the scattering chamber. The decomposition resulted in about 60% conversion to dibromomethylenes and lesser amounts of hexabromomethane, tribromomethyl radicals, and molecular bromine. The two structures observed for dibromomethylene were a near linear form, assigned as the triplet state, and a bent form assigned as the singlet state. An average carbon‐bromine bond distance of 1.74 A was observed for both states.