Photodissociation of o-dichlorobenzene at 266 nm Original Research Article

The photodissociation o-dichlorobenzene at 266 nm has been investigated using the universal crossed molecular beam technique. Photofragment translational energy distribution P(Et) and angular distribution of photofragments have been obtained and it is estimated that 23% of the available energy is assigned to translational energy. The anisotropy parameter is determined to be 0.4. From P(Et) and β we deduce that o-C6H4Cl2 photodissociation is a slow process. Ab initio calculation has been performed and it shows that the parent molecule has a larger geometry deformation in its excited states comparing with that of the ground state. The possible dissociation mechanism has also been proposed.