Effects of water vapor on the reaction of CH2OO with NH3.

The reaction of the simplest Criegee intermediate, CH2OO, with ammonia and water vapor has been investigated at 278-308 K and under 100-760 Torr by monitoring the strong UV absorption of CH2OO. We found that the observed decay rate of CH2OO becomes much larger when ammonia and water vapor are both present; the combinational effect of ammonia and water vapor is significantly greater than the sum of their individual contributions, revealing a strong synergic effect. The kinetic data are consistent with a termolecular process of CH2OO + NH3 + H2O reaction, of which the reaction rate coefficient was determined to be kNH3+H2O = (8.2 ± 1.2) × 10-31 cm6 s-1 at 298 K with a negative activation energy, Ea = -8.0 ± 0.8 kcal mol-1 [kNH3+H2O(T) = 1.04 × 10-36 exp(4047/T)]. Quantum chemistry calculation (at the QCISD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ//B3LYP/6-311+G(2d,2p) level) found a low-energy reaction pathway, on which water accepts a hydrogen atom (or proton) from ammonia and releases another hydrogen atom to the terminal oxygen of CH2OO. The predicted products are H2NCH2OOH and a new H2O molecule, indicating water catalysis. This reaction is very fast and probably barrierless, which poses a theoretical challenge to modeling the related kinetics.