Scattering of electrons with aqueous biomaterials

Abstract

The aqueous phase of DNA, which is more realistic phase due to the presence of H-bonds is studied in this work for various molecular processes upon electron impact. We report computed probabilities of various interaction processes taking place during the collision of electrons with DNA molecules, viz., Adenine, Guanine, Cytosine, Thymine and Uracil in their aqueous phase. Modified spherical complex potential approach has been employed for the quantification of various (N+1) elastic and inelastic including ionisation interactions through the cross-sections. Since no study for electron scattering with aqueous DNA is available, we compared our results with condensed phase and also a new approach for estimating the elastic and total cross-sections has been proposed in the present work for larger and complex molecules (55 < Z < 95) like the DNA compounds and encouraging results are observed. Correlations of molecular ionisation with dielectric constant and polarisability of the compounds have also been investigated.