Scientists are interested in the CO₂ cycle in the atmosphere of Venus. In order to study the cycle involving the reaction with chlorine, it is necessary to investigate the reaction intermediate, the ClCO radical, which can be used to prove the hypothesis of the CO₂ cycle on Venus. In the present work, we observed the pure rotational transitions of the ClCO radical by FTMW spectroscopy. Due to the large rotational constant A, only K_a = 0 a-type transitions were observed. Based on the experimental results of the ClCO radical, it was found that the unpaired electron is mainly located in the in-plane p_x orbital of the central carbon atom. The distribution of the unpaired electron on the chlorine nucleus does not extend toward the direction of the Cl–C bond, which is different from the case of the FCO radical.

中文翻译：

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ClCO 自由基的傅里叶变换微波光谱


科学家们对金星大气中的 CO₂ 循环感兴趣。为了研究涉及与氯反应的循环，有必要研究反应中间体 ClCO 自由基，它可以用来证明金星上 CO₂ 循环的假设。在本工作中，我们通过 FTMW 光谱观察到 ClCO 自由基的纯旋转跃迁。由于旋转常数 A 较大，仅观察到 K_a = 0 a 型跃迁。根据 ClCO 自由基的实验结果，发现不成对电子主要位于中心碳原子的面内 p_x 轨道上。不成对电子在氯原子核上的分布不会向 Cl-C 键的方向延伸，这与 FCO 自由基的情况不同。