Product energetics of the reaction C(1D) + H2 → CH + H

The product CH radical of the subject reaction was monitored by laser-induced fluorescence following vacuum ultraviolet photolysis of C₃O₂. As expected from consideration of reaction energetics, only the ground vibrational level was observed. The rotational population distribution in CH(ν″ = 0) matches well a calculated RRHO prior distribution which is averaged over a 300 K Boltzmann distribution of available reactant energy. The experimental results are compared to rotational population distributions derived from previously reported classical trajectory calculations.