Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 5, 2025

Photoelectron Imaging of Anions Illustrated by 310 Nm Detachment of F−
Published on: July 27, 2018
Dissociative electron attachment to carbon tetrachloride probed by velocity map imaging
Anirban Paul1, Dhananjay Nandi1,2, Daniel S Slaughter3
1Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, Mohanpur 741246, India.
Abstract:
Bond-breaking in CCl4via dissociative electron attachment (DEA) has been studied using a velocity map imaging (VMI) spectrometer. A number of effects related to the dissociation dynamics have been revealed. The near-zero eV s-wave electron attachment, which leads to the production of Cl- anions, is accompanied by a very efficient intramolecular vibrational redistribution. This is manifested by a small fraction of the excess energy being released in the form of the fragments' translation energy. A similar effect is observed for higher-lying electronic resonances with one exception: the resonance centered around 6.2 eV leads to the production of fast Cl2- fragments and their angular distribution is forward peaking. This behavior could not be explained with a single-electronic-state model in the axial recoil approximation and is most probably caused by bending dynamics initiated by a Jahn-Teller distortion of the transient anion. The CCl2- fragment has a reverse backward-peaking angular distribution, suggesting the presence of a long-distance electron hopping mechanism between the fragments.
Related Concept Videos
Chemical Ionization (CI) Mass Spectrometry
π Electron Effects on Chemical Shift: Overview
¹³C NMR: Distortionless Enhancement by Polarization Transfer (DEPT)
Double Resonance Techniques: Overview
Spin decoupling is usually achieved by...
UV–Vis Spectroscopy: Molecular Electronic Transitions
Mass Spectrometry: Molecular Fragmentation Overview
One type of fragmentation pattern is the cleavage of a single bond in the molecular ion. The cleavage leads to a radical and a cation. The cleavage can...

