Dissociative electron attachment and anion-induced dimerization in pyruvic acid

We report partial cross sections for the dissociative electron attachment to pyruvic acid. A rich fragmentation dynamics is observed. Electronic structure calculations facilitate the identification of complex rearrangement reactions that occur during the dissociation. Furthermore, a number of fragment anions produced at electron energies close to 0 eV are observed, that cannot originate from single electron-molecule collisions. We ascribe their production to secondary reactions of the transient anions with neutral molecules. Such reactions turn out to be unusually efficient; the most probable reason for this is that they proceed via the formation of a double-hydrogen-bonded complex followed by an ultrafast proton transfer between the reaction partners.