LASER ELECTRIC RESONANCE STUDIES OF THE PRODUCTS OF CHEMICAL REACTIONS

Author Institution: Division of Physics, National Research Council of CanadaThe technique of laser electric resonance spectroscopy has been applied to the products of the reaction between formaldehyde and fluorine atoms, in an attempt to observe the $\nu_{2}$ fundamental of the HCO free radical near 1080 $cm^{-1}$, The fluorine was generated by means of a microwave discharge excited in $CF_{4}$ gas flowing through a quartz tube. Spectra which may be assigned to three species have been observed. One of these has been identified unambiguously as HFCO, presumably formed by reaction of $F_{2}$ molecules with $H_{2}CO$, and another is probably $F_{2}CO$, The third species, for which only a few transitions have been observed, is probably HCO; we are currently concentrating on its analysis