The reaction between the methyl Criegee intermediate and hydrogen chloride: an FTMW spectroscopic study

Abstract

Experiments using pulsed Fourier-transform microwave spectroscopy have been performed to probe the reaction between the methyl substituted Criegee intermediate, CH₃CHOO, and hydrogen chloride. Two conformers of the product derived from the insertion of HCl within CH₃CHOO, chloroethyl hydroperoxide, formed in the discharged plasma of a CH₃CHI₂/O₂/HCl gas mixture, were identified through their experimentally determined rotational and quadrupole coupling constants. The relative abundance of the detected species indicates that the reaction of the anti-CH₃CHOO conformer is faster than that of the syn-CH₃CHOO conformer. The results presented in this work constitute the first experimental information about the reaction between CH₃CHOO and HCl.