Dissociation of Methanol and Acetylene by slow Highly Charged Ion Collision

Abstract

We report here the results of dissociation of multiple charged methanol and acetylene molecules in collision with 1.2 MeV Ar8+ projectiles. We observed a wide range of dissociation products from the TOF spectrum starting from undissociated molecular ions, fragments losing an hydrogen atom due to breakage of C–H and/or O–H bonds, to complete rupture of C–C and C–O skeletons for the respective molecules. From the coincidence map of the fragments, we could separate out the different dissociation channels between carbon and oxygen ionic fragments as well as complete two-body dissociation events. The most striking feature in the breakup of CH3OH is the formation of H2+ and H3+ due to intramolecular rearrangement of the C–H bonds within the methyl group. In dissociative ionization studies of C2H2, we observed a diatom-like behaviour of the C–C charged complex as evidenced from the measured slopes of the coincidence islands for carbon atomic charged fragments and theoretical values determined from the charge and momentum distribution of the correlated particles. The shape and orientation of the islands give further information about the momentum balance in the fragmentation process in two-body dissociation.