Crossed molecular beam study of reactive scattering: O + CS2 →SO + CS

The angular distribution and velocity of SO reactively scattered from crossed molecular beams of oxygen atoms and CS2 have been measured. In c.m. coordinates, the SO is strongly forward scattered with an in plane angular distribution represented by exp(−θ/50°), indicating a direct reaction mechanism. The mean recoil velocity of SO is independent of the c.m. angle, showing that the average fraction of reaction exoergicity appearing as translational energy of product separation is <10%. Combined with other evidence on vibrational excitation of products, this suggests that the main channel for released energy is into rotation and that the reaction proceeds via highly bent intermediate configurations. The total reaction cross section is estimated to be 1.1 Å2.