Eur. Phys. J. D 20, 339-345 (2002)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2002-00165-4

Isolation of adenine salts in the gas phase from a liquid beam of aqueous solutions by IR laser irradiation

East Tokyo laboratory, Genesis Research Institute, Inc. and Cluster Research Laboratory, Toyota Technological Institute 717-86 Futamata, Ichikawa, Chiba 272-0001, Japan

Corresponding author: ^a kondow@utsc.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Received: 1 May 2002
Published online: 13 September 2002

Abstract

A continuous liquid flow in a vacuum (a liquid beam) of an aqueous solution of adenine salt containing hydrochloric acid or sodium hydroxide was irradiated with an intense pulsed IR laser at 3 μm, which is resonant to a vibrational mode related to the OH stretch vibration of H₂O. Neutral species isolated into the vacuum were ionized by a pulsed UV laser at 270 nm, and the product ions were mass-analyzed by a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. It is found that AHCl^- and [ A–iH] Na⁺ (i=1–3) are isolated in the vacuum from the aqueous acidic and alkaline solutions, respectively, under irradiation of the IR laser, and undergo four-photon ionization involving decomposition and proton transfer of the intermediate species under irradiation of the UV laser.