https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2017-80540-8
Regular Article
Electron-impact ionization cross section of formic acid★
1
J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences,
Dolejškova 3,
18223
Prague, Czech Republic
2
Atomic Physics Division, Department of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics, Faculty of Applied Physics and Mathematics, Gdańsk University of Technology,
ul. G. Narutowicza 11/12,
80-233
Gdańsk, Poland
a e-mail: mateusz.zawadzki@jh-inst.cas.cz
Received:
20
August
2017
Received in final form:
3
November
2017
Published online: 18
January
2018
Experimental electron-impact ionization cross sections of one of the simplest carboxylic acids, formic acid, are presented. The molecular target was studied in two independent experimental setups applying different methods: the total ion collection and the electron–impact mass spectrometry methods. Experimental data were taken at incident electron energies ranging from ionization threshold [11.31 eV; J.C. Traeger, Int. J. Mass Spectrom. Ion Process. 66, 271 (1985)] to 76 eV using a total cross section of 4.0 Å2 at 70 eV for the total ion collection method. In the spectrometric method the four main cations COH+, HCOOH+, COOH+ and CO+ are found to contribute to about 97% of the total ionization cross section.
© The Author(s) 2018. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
