Energy redistribution, including the many phonon-assisted and electronically assisted energy-exchange processes at a gas-metal interface, can hamper vibrationally mediated selectivity in chemical reactions. We establish that these limitations do not prevent bond-selective control of a heterogeneously catalyzed reaction. State-resolved gas-surface scattering measurements show that the nu1 C-H stretch vibration in trideuteromethane (CHD3) selectively activates C-H bond cleavage on a Ni(111) surface. Isotope-resolved detection reveals a CD3:CHD2 product ratio > 30:1, which contrasts with the 1:3 ratio for an isoenergetic ensemble of CHD3 whose vibrations are statistically populated. Recent studies of vibrational energy redistribution in the gas and condensed phases suggest that other gas-surface reactions with similar vibrational energy flow dynamics might also be candidates for such bond-selective control.

Specific rate constants k(E) of the dissociation of the halobenzene ions C6H5X+ --> C6H5+ + X* (X* = Cl, Br, and I) were measured over a range of 10(3)-10(7) s-1 by threshold photoelectron-photoion coincidence (TPEPICO) spectroscopy. The experimental data were analyzed by various statistical unimolecular rate theories in order to derive the threshold energies E0. Although rigid activated complex RRKM theory fits the data in the experimentally measured energy range, it significantly underestimates E0 for chloro- and bromobenzene. Phase space theory (PST) does not fit the experimentally measured rates. A parametrized version of the variational transition state theory (VTST) as well as a simplified version of the statistical adiabatic channel model (SSACM) incorporating an energy dependent rigidity factor provide excellent fits to the experimental data and predict the correct dissociation energies. Although both approaches have just two adjustable parameters, one of which is E0, SSACM is effective and particularly simple to apply.

The dissociative photoionization onset energy of the CH(3)I --> CH(3)(+) + I reaction was studied at the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) beamline of the Swiss Light Source (SLS) using a new imaging photoelectron photoion coincidence (iPEPICO) apparatus operating with a photon resolution of 2 meV and a threshold electron kinetic energy resolution of about 1 meV. Three previous attempts at establishing this value accurately, namely a pulsed field ionization (PFI)-PEPICO measurement, ab initio calculations and a mass-analyzed threshold ionization (MATI) experiment, in which the onset energy was bracketed by state-selected excitation to vibrationally excited (2)A(1) A states of the parent ion, have yielded contradictory results. It is shown that dimers and adducts formed in the supersonic molecular beam affected the PFI-PEPICO onset energy. The room temperature iPEPICO experiment yields an accurate 0 K onset of 12.248 +/- 0.003 eV, from which we derive a Delta(f)H(o)(298 K)(CH(3)I) = 15.23 +/- 0.3 kJ mol(-1), and the C-I bond energy in CH(3)I is 232.4 +/- 0.4 kJ mol(-1). The room temperature breakdown diagram shows a fine structure that corresponds to the threshold photoelectron spectrum (TPES) of the A state. Low internal energy neutrals seem to be preferentially ionized in the A state when compared with the X state, and A state peaks in the TPES are Stark-shifted as a function of the DC field, whereas the dissociative photoionization of X state ions is not affected. This suggests that there are different competing mechanisms at play to produce ions in the A state vs. ions in the X state. The competition between field ionization and autoionization in CH(3)I is compared with that in Ar, N(2) and in the H-atom loss energy region in CH(4)(+). The binding energies of the neutral and ionic Ar-CH(3)I clusters were found to be 26 and 66 meV, respectively.

Direct dynamics simulations and selected ion flow tube (SIFT) experiments were performed to study the kinetics and dynamics of the OH(-) + CH3I reaction versus temperature. This work complements previous direct dynamics simulation and molecular beam ion imaging experiments of this reaction versus reaction collision energy (Xie et al. J. Phys. Chem. A 2013, 117, 7162). The simulations and experiments are in quite good agreement. Both identify the SN2, OH(-) + CH3I → CH3OH + I(-), and proton transfer, OH(-) + CH3I → CH2I(-) + H2O, reactions as having nearly equal importance. In the experiments, the SN2 pathway constitutes 0.64 ± 0.05, 0.56 ± 0.05, 0.51 ± 0.05, and 0.46 ± 0.05 of the total reaction at 210, 300, 400, and 500 K, respectively. For the simulations this fraction is 0.56 ± 0.06, 0.55 ± 0.04, and 0.50 ± 0.05 at 300, 400, and 500 K, respectively. The experimental total reaction rate constant is (2.3 ± 0.6) × 10(-9), (1.7 ± 0.4) × 10(-9), (1.9 ± 0.5) × 10(-9), and (1.8 ± 0.5) × 10(-9) cm(3) s(-1) at 210, 300, 400, and 500 K, respectively, which is approximately 25% smaller than the collision capture value. The simulation values for this rate constant are (1.7 ± 0.2) × 10(-9), (1.8 ± 0.1) × 10(-9), and (1.6 ± 0.1) × 10(-9) cm(3)s(-1) at 300, 400, and 500 K. From the simulations, direct rebound and stripping mechanisms as well as multiple indirect mechanisms are identified as the atomic-level reaction mechanisms for both the SN2 and proton-transfer pathways. For the SN2 reaction the direct and indirect mechanisms have nearly equal probabilities; the direct mechanisms are slightly more probable, and direct rebound is more important than direct stripping. For the proton-transfer pathway the indirect mechanisms are more important than the direct mechanisms, and stripping is significantly more important than rebound for the latter. Calculations were performed with the OH(-) quantum number J equal to 0, 3, and 6 to investigate the effect of OH(-) rotational excitation on the OH(-) + CH3I reaction dynamics. The overall reaction probability and the probabilities for the SN2 and proton-transfer pathways have little dependence on J. Possible effects on the atomistic mechanisms were investigated for the SN2 pathway and the probability of the direct rebound mechanism increased with J. However, the other atomistic mechanisms were not appreciably affected by J.