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Updated: Oct 14, 2025

Spatial Separation of Molecular Conformers and Clusters
Published on: January 9, 2014
Electron ionization of clusters containing the formamide molecule
Harvey-Andres Suarez-Moreno1, Lauren Eckermann2,3, Fabio Zappa1
1Institut für Ionenphysik und Angewandte Physik and Center for Molecular Biosciences, Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Abstract:
Studies on electron interactions with formamide (FA) clusters promote scientific interest as a model system to understand phenomena relevant to astrophysical, prebiotic, and radiobiological processes. In this work, mass spectrometric detection of cationic species for both small bare and microhydrated formamide clusters was performed at an electron ionization of 70 eV. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of the cluster spectra with the literature-reported gas-phase spectra is presented and discussed, revealing different reaction channels affected by the cluster environment. This study is essential in developing our understanding of both low-energy electron phenomena in clusters that can bridge the complexity gap between gas and realistic systems and the effect of hydration on electron-induced processes.
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