title: Energy selective excision of CN- following electron attachment to hexafluoroacetone azine ((CF3)2C=N-N=C(CF3)2).
abstract: Low energy electron attachment (DEA) to hexafluoroacetone azine (HFAA) leads to a remarkable energy selective excision of CN(-) within a pronounced resonance located at 1.35 eV. The underlying dissociative electron attachment (DEA) reaction involves multiple bond cleavages and rearrangement within the neutral products. A series of further fragment ions (F(-), CF(3)(-), (CF(3))(2)C(-) and (CF(3))(2)CN(-)) are observed from resonant features above 2 eV and only (CF(3))(2)CN(-) is additionally formed within a narrow resonance below 1 eV. In contrast to CN(-) all the remaining fragment ions can be formed by simple bond cleavages with (CF(3))(2)CN(-) being the result of a symmetric decomposition of the target molecule by cleavage of the (N-N) bond with the excess charge localised on either of the identical fragments. Our ab initio calculations predict an adiabatic electron affinity of HFAA close to 2 eV with the geometry of the relaxed anion considerably distorted with respect to that of the neutral molecule.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Chemie und Biochemie-Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany. ibald@zedat.fu-berlin.de
authors.forename: Ilko
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Bald
authors.forename: Iwona
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dabkowska
authors.forename: Eugen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Illenberger
authors.forename: Oddur
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Ingólfsson