Abstract
A pulsed laser photolysis-pulsed laser induced fluorescence technique has been employed to study the recombination of mercury and bromine atoms, Hg + Br + M → HgBr + M (1) and the self-reaction of bromine atoms, Br + Br + M → Br2 + M (2). Rate coefficients were determined as a function of pressure (200−600 Torr) and temperature (243−293 K) in nitrogen buffer gas and as a function of pressure (200−600 Torr) in helium buffer gas at room temperature. For reaction 1, kinetic measurements were performed under conditions in which bromine atoms were the reactant in excess concentration while simultaneously monitoring the concentration of both mercury and bromine. A temperature dependent expression of (1.46 ± 0.34) × 10-32 × (T/298)-(1.86±1.49) cm6 molecule-2 s-1 was determined for the third-order recombination rate coefficient in nitrogen buffer gas. The effective second-order rate coefficient for reaction 1 under atmospheric conditions is a factor of 9 smaller than previously determined in a recently published relative rate study. For reaction 2 we obtain a temperature dependent expression of (4.31 ± 0.21) × 10-33 × (T/298)-(2.77±0.30) cm6 molecule-2 s-1 for the third-order recombination rate coefficient in nitrogen buffer gas. The rate coefficients are reported with a 2σ error of precision only; however, due to the uncertainty in the determination of absolute bromine atom concentrations and other unidentified systematic errors we conservatively estimate an uncertainty of ±50% in the rate coefficients. For both reactions the observed pressure, temperature and buffer gas dependencies are consistent with the expected behavior for three-body recombination.
