https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/s10053-021-00246-w
Regular Article – Atomic and Molecular Collisions
Dissociative attachment of low-energy electrons to acetonitrile
1
J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences, Dolejškova 3, 18223, Prague, Czech Republic
2
Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 25, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria
Received:
26
June
2021
Accepted:
12
August
2021
Published online:
24
August
2021
We experimentally probed the low-energy electron-induced dissociation of acetonitrile and acetonitrile-
and performed density functional theory calculations to support the experimental results. The previous studies on electron attachment to acetonitrile presented a number of contradictory findings, which we aimed to resolve in the present study. We observed the formation of 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, 
and 
anions and the corresponding deuterated fragments for acetonitrile- by dissociative electron attachment, and measured ion yields curves of each fragment. We saw no evidence for associative electron attachment to form the parent ion in these measurements. We also have measured the kinetic energy and angular distribution of selected fragments using a velocity map imaging (VMI) spectrometer.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to EDP Sciences, SIF and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021
