Heterogeneous recombination of O + CO on solid CO2 at 77 K

Heterogeneous recombination of O + CO → CO₂ over a solid CO₂ surface at 77 K was investigated. A modified discharge flow setup was used to generate low O atom concentrations by the reaction N + NO → N₂ + O(³P). The O atom concentrations were measured upstream and downstream of the solid CO₂ substrate using resonance fluorescence by monitoring the unresolved 130.3 nm triplet transition ³S₁ ? ³P_2,1,0 at the two fixed points. CO₂ formed was determined by measuring the β activity from C¹⁴O₂ produced from CO containing C¹⁴O as a reactant gas. The CO₂ formation was found to be first order in CO and independent of O atom concentration over the entire range of 4.3 × 10¹² to 1.9 × 10¹⁴ cm^?3 and 1.2 × 10¹¹ to 5.6 × 10¹² cm^?3 for CO and O respectively. The first order recombination coefficient, λ_CO was found to be 1.4 (±.38) × 10^?5.