High-resolution photoelectron spectra of the pyrimidine-type nucleobases

High-resolution photoelectron spectra of the gas phase pyrimidine-type nucleobases, thymine, uracil, and cytosine, were collected using synchrotron radiation over the photon energy range 17 ≤ hν ≤ 150 eV. These data provide the highest resolution photoelectron spectra of thymine, uracil, and cytosine published to date. By comparing integrated regions of the energy dependent photoelectron spectra of thymine, the ionization potentials of the first four ionic states of thymine were estimated to be 8.8, 9.8, 10.3, and 10.8 eV. The thymine data also show evidence for low energy shape resonances in three of the outermost valence electronic states. Comparing the uracil spectrum with the thymine spectrum, the four outermost valence electronic states of uracil likely begin at binding energies 9.3, 9.9, 10.5, and 11.0 eV. High-resolution spectra indicate only one tautomeric form of cytosine contributes significantly to the spectrum with the four outermost valence electronic states beginning at binding energies 8.9, 9.9, 10.4, and 10.85 eV.