Infrared Chemiluminescence of the Reaction N + O(2) ? NO + O.

The chemiluminescent nature of the reaction N + O(2) ? NO + O followed by N + NO ? N(2) + O has been investigated in the steady state through detection of characteristic infrared radiation emitted by NO molecules. Both Deltaupsilon = 1 radiation at 5.4 micro and Deltaupsilon = 2 at 2.7 mu exhibit linear dependence on O(2) pressure. In the case of the overtone, low-resolution spectra are obtained at several O(2) pressures, and it is shown that under the experimental conditions reported here the spectra should closely reflect the initial vibrational distribution of the NO molecules as they are formed. From the spectral results we are able to estimate an overtone quantum efficiency for the reaction N + O(2) ? NO(double dagger) + O. Depending upon the experimentally reported value of the rate for this reaction, the quantum efficiency is between 0.2 and 0.5.