Low-energy electron collisions with methanol

Abstract

Low-energy electron (LEE) scattering with alcohols is important for understanding radiation damage in biological systems and in atmospheric processes. Here, we investigate LEE scattering from methanol (CH3OH), the simplest alcohol. For this purpose, we have performed ab initio R-matrix calculations within the fixed-nuclei approximation for incident electron energies up to 12 eV. Elastic and electronic excitation cross sections show the presence of three core-excited resonances in the 6–12 eV range in accordance with the reported experimental results. Attention is drawn to the effect of methyl substitution on resonances' positions and widths by comparing with previous R-matrix calculations on electron–water collisions.