Energy transfer from metastable electronically excited N2, Ar, Kr, and Xe to CH3OH, H2O2, CH3NH2, and N2H4

The products of the reactions of metastable N2(A 3Σ+u) with the isoelectronic molecules CH3OH, H2O2, CH3NH2, and N2H4 have been studied using the discharge-flow technique, coupled with atomic resonance fluorescence and laser induced fluorescence detection. In the reaction with H2O2, the weak central bond is broken efficiently, but in the other reactions, scission of the central bond is unimportant compared to that of the stronger terminal X–H bonds. The behavior for all four reagent molecules parallels their UV photochemistry, but contrasts with IR multiphoton dissociation of CH3OH and CH3NH2. The reactions of N2(A) appear to parallel those of the excited metastable noble gases Ar(3P0,2), Kr(3P2), and Xe(3P2), but scaled to the lower energy of N2(A).