Identification of the D3h Isomer of Carbon Trioxide (CO3) and Its Implications for Atmospheric Chemistry

✍ Scribed by Corey S. Jamieson; Alexander M. Mebel; Ralf I. Kaiser

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 176 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1439-4235
• DOI: 10.1002/cphc.200600390

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The CO~3~ molecule is considered an important reaction intermediate in the atmospheres of Earth and Mars for quenching electronically excited oxygen atoms and in contributing to the anomalous ^18^O isotope enrichment. The geometry of the CO~3~ intermediate plays an important role in explaining these effects; however, only the cyclic (C~2__v__~) isomer has been experimentally confirmed so far. Here, we report on the first spectroscopic detection of the acyclic (D~3h~) isomer of carbon trioxide (^12^C^16^O~3~) via its ν~1~ and ν~2~ vibrational modes centered around 1165 cm^−1^ under matrix isolation conditions; the identification of the ^12^C^18^O~3~, ^13^C^16^O~3~, ^13^C^18^O~3~, ^16^O^12^C^18^O~2~, and ^18^O^12^C^16^O~2~ isotopomers of the acyclic isomer confirms the assignments.