Eur. Phys. J. D (2016) 70: 130
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2016-70159-8

Regular Article

Kinetic-energy release distributions of fragment anions from collisions of potassium atoms with D-Ribose and tetrahydrofuran^*,**

¹ Laboratório de Colisões Atómicas e Moleculares, CEFITEC, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 2829-516, Caparica, Portugal
² Instituto de Física Fundamental, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Serrano 113-bis, 28006 Madrid, Spain

^a e-mail: plimaovieira@fct.unl.pt

Received: 2 March 2016
Received in final form: 6 April 2016
Published online: 7 June 2016

Abstract

Kinetic-energy release distributions have been obtained from the width and shapes of the time-of-flight (TOF) negative ion mass peaks formed in collisions of fast potassium atoms with D-Ribose (DR) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) molecules. Recent dissociative ion-pair formation experiments yielding anion formation have shown that the dominant fragment from D-Ribose is OH⁻ [D. Almeida, F. Ferreira da Silva, G. García, P. Limão-Vieira, J. Chem. Phys. 139, 114304 (2013)] whereas in the case of THF is O⁻ [D. Almeida, F. Ferreira da Silva, S. Eden, G. García, P. Limão-Vieira, J. Phys. Chem. A 118, 690 (2014)]. The results for DR and THF show an energy distribution profile reminiscent of statistical degradation via vibrational excitation and partly due to direct transformation of the excess energy in translational energy.