Eur. Phys. J. D (2015) 69: 157
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2015-60184-6

Regular Article

Electron driven processes in sulphur containing compounds CH₃SCH₃ and CH₃SSCH₃^*

Siedlce University, Faculty of Science, 3 Maja 54, 08-110 Siedlce, Poland

^a e-mail: kopyra@uph.edu.pl

Received: 18 March 2015
Received in final form: 13 May 2015
Published online: 16 June 2015

Abstract

Dissociative electron attachment to gas phase dimethyl sulphide (CH₃SCH₃) and dimethyl disulphide (CH₃SSCH₃) has been studied by means of a crossed beams apparatus. Cleavage of the C–S bond within CH₃SCH₃ and the S–S bond within CH₃SSCH₃ is observed within a resonance in the energy range below 2 eV and visible preferentially via the appearance of the fragment CH₂S⁻. The striking finding is that the intensity of CH₂S⁻ generated from CH₃SSCH₃ is more than two orders of magnitude higher than the intensity of the respective anionic fragment generated from CH₃SCH₃. Our results clearly demonstrate that the CH₃SSCH₃ molecule, which contains disulphide bridge is substantially more sensitive towards electron attachment resulting mainly in dissociation along the S–S bridge.