Fragmentation dynamics of meso-tetraphenyl iron (III) porphyrin chloride dication under energy control

Meso-tetraphenyl iron (III) porphyrin chloride dications (FeTPPCl²⁺)^* were prepared in collisions with F⁺ and H⁺ at 3 keV. The dominant fragmentation channels were observed to involve the loss of the Cl atom and the successive loss of neutral phenyl groups for both collisional systems. The mass spectra in correlation with the deposited excitation energy distributions of the parent ions for the main fragmentation channels were measured by using the collision induced dissociation under energy control method. The global excitation energy distribution was found to be shifted to lower energies in collisions with H⁺ compared to collisions with F⁺ showing a noteworthy change of the excitation energy window using different projectile ions. Partial excitation energy distributions of the parent ions FeTPPCl²⁺ were obtained for each fragmentation group. In a theoretical work, we have calculated the dissociation energies for the loss of one and two phenyl groups, including phenyl and (phenyl ± H). The energy barrier for the hydrogen atom transfer during the loss of (phenyl-H) has been also calculated. The measured energy difference for the successive loss of two phenyl groups was compared with the theoretical values.