Investigating the ultraviolet photodissociation of bromocyclopropane with ultrafast electron diffraction
We have studied the photodissociation of gas-phase bromocyclopropane by 200 nm wavelength ultraviolet radiation using ultrafast electron diffraction. Bromocyclopropane is a prototypical molecule in the study of organobromides, a class of molecules that have a significant impact on atmospheric ozone depletion through their photochemistry. Previous studies have revealed two possible reaction pathways for the photodissociation of bromine from bromocyclopropane; either the C-Br bond dissociates, leaving behind a cyclopropyl ring, or there is a concerted opening of the cyclopropyl ring along with the C-Br bond dissociation. In this work, both our experimental and simulation results indicate that the majority of the UV-photoexcited BCP molecules (88% ± 11% in the experiment) follow the first reaction pathway, in which the cyclopropyl ring remains closed after homolytic C-Br bond cleavage. This direct bond dissociation occurs within the experimental time resolution of 270 fs. In order to differentiate between the possible reaction end-products, both of which have diffraction signals dominated by the bromine atom, a new analysis method has been employed, which is more sensitive to the structure of the end-products.
Authors
- Stephen Weathersby (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0253-4781)
- Cuong Le (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4768-5434)
- Andrew J. Orr‐Ewing (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5551-9609)
- Fuhao Ji (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-9601-6233)
- Martin Centurion (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5662-2293)
- Ming‐Fu Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8086-2484)
- Yusong Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5156-6720)
- Sajib Kumar Saha (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4094-2604)
- Xiaozhe Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6844-608X)
- Conor D. Rankine (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7104-847X)
- Duan Luo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5926-9870)
- Kareem Hegazy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6043-188X)
- Andrew Attar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9509-3857)
- Yanwei Xiong (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9412-4447)
- Thomas Wolf (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0641-1279)
- Xijie Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3324-4709)
- Kyle Wilkin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7814-4085)
- Jie Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5115-2413)
- J. Pedro F. Nunes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0670-6023)
- Matthew R. Ware (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7006-0004)
- J. Lederer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-7395-5735)
Institutions
- University of Nebraska–Lincoln (US)
- TU Dortmund University (DE)
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (US)
- Diamond Light Source (GB)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- University of York (GB)
- University of Duisburg-Essen (DE)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- The Journal of Chemical Physics
- Published
- 2025-11-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0293140
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.60