The state correlation diagrams were examined for dehydrogenatic photodissocn. pathways of ketene by C2v, Cs-bent in plane, and Cs-bent out of plane models, resp. For the symmetry-allowed pathways ab initio calcns. were carried out to determine the reaction paths. The most possible path found is a diabatic photoreaction via Cs-bent in plane way along the potential energy surface of excited-state 1A" and its potential barrier was determine to be 263.83kJ.mol-1.

Key words: DEHYDROGENATION REACTION, COMPUTER APPLICATIONS, AB INITIO CALCULATION, PHOTOLYSIS, ETHENONE (=KETENE)