Vibrational relaxation of NO(υ=1) by oxygen atoms

The rate constant kO(υ=1) for NO(υ=1) vibrational relaxation by O has been measured at room temperature using a laser photolysis-laser probe technique. Vibrationally excited NO and relaxer O atoms were formed using 355 nm laser photolysis of a dilute mixture of NO2 in argon bath gas. The time evolution of both the NO(υ=1) and the O atoms was monitored using laser-induced fluorescence (LIF). The required absolute O-atom densities were obtained through a comparison of O-atom LIF signals from the photolysis source and from a titrated cw microwave source. At early times the O atoms constitute the most important loss mechanism for the nascently produced NO(υ=1). Possible effects from NO(υ=1) vibrational ladder-climbing and from thermal expansion have been shown to be minimal. The rate constant kO(υ=1)=(2.4±0.5)×10−11 cm3 s−1 determined herein is a factor of 2 to 3 lower than the generally accepted value of kO(υ=1) used in thermospheric modeling. The present value for kO(υ=1) is the same, within the error bars, as the kO(υ=2,3) previously measured in this laboratory using an entirely different technique, resonant infrared laser excitation of NO(υ=0). This result suggests that the collisional relaxation rates are independent of υ. A recent quasiclassical trajectory calculation, in which both allowed NO–O surfaces have been explicitly considered, predicts a collisional relaxation rate which is in good agreement with the present result. The kO(υ=1) value, along with previously measured rate constants for NO–O high-pressure recombination (krec∞) and isotope exchange (kiso), can serve as a proxy for the rate coefficient kC describing the formation of a long-lived NO2* intermediate from O+NO collisions. The present value for kO(υ=1) is significantly lower, however, than a recent determination of krec∞ and also the value of kC derived from kiso. In the latter case the comparison is not as straightforward.