Photodissociation dynamics of organic halides has been extensively investigated due to its potential to the stratosphere ozone depletion and relevant environmental problems. For example, alkyl bromide as the simplest organic halides has been used for model of photodissociation dynamics. The A-band of alkyl bromide arises from the C-Br bond localized transition and consists of three overlapping transitions to repulsive states ( Q 1 PESs via a conical intersection along the C-Br bond coordinate.
4-6Compared to the photodissociation of alkyl bromide, the photodissociation dynamics of aryl halides 7-16 show more complicated because more electronic states are involved and thus making multiple dissociation pathways probable. Multiple dissociation pathways include the predissociation between excited electronic states, internal conversion processes from vibrational excited states, and dissociation processes from repulsive states. It has been unraveled by numerous studies that dissociation pathways are substantially dependent on the type of halogen, 9-11 atomic substituents, 12 and excitation wavelengths.13 In the early work on the bromobenzene (C 6 H 5 Br) photodissociation near 266 nm, 7-12,14 the main dissociation channel is an indirect dissociation involving the bound (π, π * ) and repulsive (π, σ * ) states. In the short wavelength, significant UV absorption of bromobenzene is caused by and transition; the mixing between these states becomes more probable and additional routes can be observed as in the case of photodissociation of iodobezene. 8,14 With the purpose of elucidation of dissociation dynamics of bromobenzene at short-wavelengths, we have previously investigated 234 nm dissociation dynamics of bromobenzene using velocity ion map imaging.14 Observed trimodal translational distributions for Br/Br * formation channels have been attributed to the direct and indirect dissociation mechanisms originating from the initially excited (π, π * ) state. This is indicative that dissociation mechanisms of bromobenzene at 234 nm are more complicated than those near 270 nm.14 In this regards, more systematic studies focused on effects of atomic substituents such as fluorine, bromine and chlorine on phenyl group are required to have a comprehensive understanding of the photodissociation dynamics of bromobenzene near 234 nm. The objective of the present work is to investigate the fluorine substitution effects in bromobenzene near 234 nm further. In this note, as continuing efforts for this purpose, we present ion-imaging study for photodissociation dynamics of pentafluorobromobenzen (C 6 F 5 Br) at 234 nm using velocity map imaging coupled with [2+1] resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI) scheme. With aid of ab initio calculations, 9,12 detailed photodissocation pathways are discussed. The velocity map imaging apparatus, similar to that used previously, 2,14 consists of molecular beam chamber and main interaction chamber with TOF spectrometer. Liquid samples of C 6 F 5 Br were used without further purification. Va...