Energy transfer from metastable electronically excited N₂, Ar, Kr, and Xe to CH₃OH, H₂O₂, CH ₃NH₂, and N₂H₄

The products of the reactions of metastable N₂ (A ³Σ_u⁺) with the isoelectronic molecules CH₃OH, H₂O₂, CH₃NH₂, and N₂H₄ have been studied using the discharge-flow technique, coupled with atomic resonance fluorescence and laser induced fluorescence detection. In the reaction with H₂O₂, the weak central bond is broken efficiently, but in the other reactions, scission of the central bond is unimportant compared to that of the stronger terminal X-H bonds. The behavior for all four reagent molecules parallels their UV photochemistry, but contrasts with IR multiphoton dissociation of CH₃OH and CH ₃NH₂. The reactions of N₂M) appear to parallel those of the excited metastable noble gases Ar(³P_0,2), Kr(³P₂), and Xe(³P₂), but scaled to the lower energy of N₂(A).