Formation of HO2 from OH and C2H2 in the presence of O2

Pulsed production of OH in a gas-phase system containing acetylene, O2 and NO resulted in biexponential OH-decay curves, indicating formation of HO2 in secondary reactions. Production and detection of OH were performed by 248 nm photolysis of H2O2 and cw-laser long-path absorption at 308 nm, respectively. Measurements were made at room temperature in O2 or N2-O2 mixtures containing 5% O2 at total pressures between 10 and 100 kPa. Analysis of the decay curves resulted in effective rate constants for the removal of OH and the formation of HO2 by acetylene in the presence of O2 in the range (1.4-3.5) x 10[-13] cm[3] s[-1], dependent on total pressure and O2 concentration. HO2 is thought to be formed from HCO and O2, with HCO originating in a reaction of an intermediate acetylene-OH adduct with O2. HO2 yields were found to vary between 1.13 and 1.01 and tending to higher values at lower total pressures. These yields are higher than the expected value of 1, which can be explained by a dissociation of a small fraction of vibrationally excited glyoxal formed, together with OH in a second channel of the acetylene-OH adduct +O2 reaction. In order to check whether the increased HO2 yields are real, CO was used instead of acetylene.