Collisional deactivation of highly vibrationally excited pyrazine

The collisional deactivation of vibrationally excited pyrazine (C₄N₂H₄) in the electronic ground state by 19 collider gases was studied using the time‐resolved infrared fluorescence (IRF) technique. The pyrazine was photoexcited with a 308 nm laser and its vibrational deactivation was monitored following rapid radiationless transitions to produce vibrationally excited molecules in the electronic ground state. The IRF data were analyzed by a simple approximate inversion method, as well as with full collisional master equation simulations. The average energies transferred in deactivating collisions (〈ΔE〉_d) exhibit a near‐linear dependence on vibrational energy at lower energies and less dependence at higher energies. The deactivation of ground state pyrazine was found to be similar to that of ground state benzene [J. R. Barker and B. M. Toselli, Int. Rev. Phys. Chem. 12, 305 (1990)], but it is strikingly different from the deactivation of triplet state pyrazine [T. J. Bevilacqua and R. B. Weisman, J. Chem. Phys. 98, 6316 (1993)].