Dissociation pathways in low energy (0–2 eV) electron attachment to Cl 2O

Abstract

Dissociative electron attachment (DA) to ClOCl is studied in a high resolution crossed beam experiment. Two complementary ion pairs, Cl −/ClO − and O −/Cl 2 −, are observed. The Cl −/ClO − pair arises from a simple Cl–OCl bond cleavage with the electron sitting on either of the two fragments. The O −/Cl 2 − pair is formed by a concerted reaction with the expulsion of O − (or O) and formation of Cl 2 (or Cl 2 −). Ab initio calculations indicate that in low energy electron attachment an electronically excited state of the precursor anion ( ClOCl − ∗ ( 2 B 2) ) is involved.