The electronic emission spectrum of methylnitrene

摘要

TheAtilde;thinsp;3Endash;Xtilde;thinsp;3A2ultraviolet emission spectrum of methylnitrene (CH3N) was obtained in two ways: (1) by reacting methylazide (CH3N3) with metastable N2in a flowing afterglow; and (2) by discharging a mixture of methylazide (CH3N3) and helium in a corona excited supersonic expansion (CESE). The origin appears atT0=31thinsp;811 cmminus;1. Several vibrational progressions were observed leading to the determination of a number of vibrational frequencies:vPrime;1=2938 ,vsquflg;2=1350,vPrime;3=1039,vsquflg;4=3065, andvPrime;6=902 cmminus;1. Deuterium substitution confirmed the assignments of the vibrational frequencies. TheXtilde;thinsp;3A2state is a normal, bound local minimum on the triplet electronic potential surface, and the upperAtilde;thinsp;3Estate is able to support at least one quantum of vibration, assigned tov3, predominantly a Cndash;N stretch. A comparison of flowing afterglow hollow cathode discharge sources and corona excited supersonic expansion sources shows the advantage of the CESE method of radical production for spectroscopy.