H<sub>2</sub> formation via non-Born-Oppenheimer hydrogen migration in photoionized ethane.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 37587115.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-023-40628-9 and PMC identifier 10432507.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Neutral H2 formation via intramolecular hydrogen migration in hydrocarbon molecules plays a vital role in many chemical and biological processes. Here, employing cold target recoil ion momentum spectroscopy (COLTRIMS) and pump-probe technique, we find that the non-adiabatic coupling between the ground and excited ionic states of ethane through conical intersection leads to a significantly high yield of neutral H2 fragment. Based on the analysis of fingerprints that are sensitive to orbital symmetry and electronic state energies in the photoelectron momentum distributions, we tag the initial electronic population of both the ground and excited ionic states and determine the branching ratios of H2 formation channel from those two states. Incorporating theoretical simulation, we established the timescale of the H2 formation to be ~1300 fs. We provide a comprehensive characterization of H2 formation in ionic states of ethane mediated by conical intersection and reveals the significance of non-adiabatic coupling dynamics in the intramolecular hydrogen migration.