Photodissociation dynamics of benzyl alcohol at 193 nm.

Photodissociation dynamics of benzyl alcohol, C6H5CH2OH and C6H5CD2OH, in a molecular beam was investigated at 193 nm using multimass ion imaging techniques. Four dissociation channels were observed, including OH elimination and H2O elimination from the ground electronic state, H atom elimination (from OH functional group), and CH2OH elimination from the triplet state. The dissociation rate on the ground state was found to be 7.7 × 106 s-1. Comparison to the potential energy surfaces from ab initio calculations, dissociation rate, and branching ratio from Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus calculations were made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]