Dynamical effects of reagent vibrational excitation in the Cl + C2H6(ν5 = 1) → HCl + C2H5 reaction

The title reaction is investigated using a photoinitiated technique that allows for the measurement of HCl product vibrational and rotational distributions using resonance enhanced multiphoton ionization (REMPI), the determination of center-of-mass scattering through core extraction, and the deduction of the average internal energy of the C2H5 product from HCl spatial anisotropy. Vibrational excitation of the ethane reagent is shown to produce only a 5% to 10% increase in integral reactivity. Production of forward-scattered HCl (v = 1) is observed, which is similar to the behavior of the chemically related Cl + CH4 (ν3 = 1) reaction.