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.
Highlights
The formamide molecule (OCHNH2, here further denoted as FA) is the simplest amide molecule with high relevance because of the O = C − N structure representing the amide bond in chains of amino acids and proteins
This study provides a detailed examination of the cationic mass spectra of bare FA and microhydrated FA clusters obtained from electron impact ionization of 70 eV
All of the significant cationic fragments from both types of clusters were carefully identified up to the cluster size of (FAn)H+ in which n = 6 for the bare FA clusters and the size of (FAn + (D2O)m)D+ up to n = 5 with several (m) molecular water attached formed from the microhydrated FA clusters
Summary
They indicated that ionization of FA could lead to the formation of the OCNH+2 cation, which was proposed to be present in interstellar surroundings [10] These previous studies devoted to possible reactions in space indicate that energetic particles and electromagnetic radiation may initiate gas-phase and condensed-phase chemistry. All previous studies with FA in the gas phase showed that the electron attachment process to FA is a dissociative one, i.e. it is not possible to detect the molecular anion on typical mass spectrometric timescales [14,24] This situation may change upon solvation, and this aspect was investigated in studies on anion formation of FA in the presence of surrounding molecules. We studied microhydration by adding D2O vapour to the expansion
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
