Vacuum Ultraviolet Photochemistry. Part III. Acetylene at 1849 A

Abstract

The products of acetylene photolysis at 1849 A were found to be a polymer resembling cuprene, hydrogen, ethylene, diacetylene, vinylacetylene, and benzene. The relationships of the quantum yields of these products to pressure of acetylene suggest that both free radicals and excited acetylene molecules are involved in the photolytic mechanism. This suggestion is strongly supported by the nature of the absorption spectrum, since in this wavelength region, the absorption is partly discrete and partly continuous.