Oxygen-assisted enhancement of H atom UV-photogeneration from hydrocarbons in van der Waals complexes RH-O2

The strong enhancement of H-atom UV-photogeneration is revealed in van der Waals complexes of unsaturated hydrocarbons RH (RHethylene C2H4, propylene C3H6, butadiene C4H6, butene-2 C4H8) with oxygen RH-O2 as compared with the 'free' RH molecules. The results obtained indicate enhancement of H atom yield to be due to one-quantum photoprocess 1RH-3O2 + hν → 3RH∗ + 3O2(1O2) providing triplet RH molecules with excitation level sufficient for dissociation.