The dissociation of vibrationally excited CH3OSO radicals and their photolytic precursor, methoxysulfinyl chloride.

The dissociation dynamics of methoxysulfinyl radicals generated from the photodissociation of CH3OS(O)Cl at 248 nm is investigated using both a crossed laser - molecular beam scattering apparatus and a velocity map imaging apparatus. There is evidence of only a single photodissociation channel of the precursor: S-Cl fission to produce Cl atoms and CH3OSO radicals. Some of the vibrationally excited CH3OSO radicals undergo subsequent dissociation to CH3 + SO2. The velocities of the detected CH3 and SO2 products show that the dissociation occurs via a transition state having a substantial barrier beyond the endoergicity; appropriately, the distribution of velocities imparted to these momentum-matched products is fit by a broad recoil kinetic energy distribution extending out to 24 kcal/mol in translational energy. Using 200 eV electron bombardment detection, we also detect the CH3OSO radicals that have too little internal energy to dissociate. These radicals are observed both at the parent CH3OSO+ ion as well as at the CH3+ and SO2+ daughter ions; they are distinguished by virtue of the velocity imparted in the original photolytic step. The detected velocities of the stable radicals are roughly consistent with the calculated barriers (both at the CCSD(T) and G3B3 levels of theory) for the dissociation of CH3OSO to CH3 + SO2 when we account for the partitioning of internal energy between rotation and vibration as the CH3OSOCl precursor dissociates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]