Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.115, No.12, 5411-5417, 2001
Ab initio studies of dissociation pathways on the ground- and excited-state potential energy surfaces for HFCO
Potential energy surfaces of the HFCO dissociation to H+FCO and F+HCO in the lowest three electronic states (S-0, S-1, and T-1) have been investigated with ab initio molecular orbital method at the level of the complete active space self-consistent field. An insight into the dynamics of the HFCO photodissociation at the range of 193-248 nm was provided in the present work. Radiationless transfer from S-1 to T-1 and subsequent dissociation on the T-1 surface was predicted to be the mechanism for the C-H bond cleavage, which is consistent with that proposed by experimentalists. The experimental investigations of the HFCO photodissociation suggest that the F-C bond fission also occurs as a result of intersystem crossing (ISC) from S-1 to T-1, which is not supported by the present calculations. This has been discussed in detail.