Surface mediated radical recombination luminescence: O+NO+Ni

Abstract

Results of an experimental investigation of the chemiluminescence produced by the interaction of atomic oxygen and nitric oxide on a nickel foil surface are reported. Visible luminescence which depends linearly on the atomic oxygen and nitric oxide fluxes, on the substrate temperature, and on the substrate temperature history has been observed under conditions for which the three-body gas-phase reaction of O and NO is negligible. The intensity of the luminescence is greater than can be accounted for by the gas-phase two-body radiative recombination reaction of O and NO. The time, flux, and temperature dependences, along with the intensity of the emission support strongly the notion that the observed luminescence stems from excited species, most probably electronically excited NO2, formed in a surface mediated reaction.