Abstract
Superoxide anions colliding with benzene molecules at impact energies from 200 to 900 eV are reported for the first time to form massive complexes. With the aid of quantum chemistry calculations, we propose a mechanism in which a sudden double ionization of benzene and the subsequent electrostatic attraction between the dication and the anion form a stable covalently bonded C6H6O2+ molecule, that evolves towards the formation of benzene-diol conformers. These findings lend support to a model presenting a new high energy anion-driven chemistry as an alternative way to form complex molecules.
Highlights
Superoxide anions colliding with benzene molecules at impact energies from 200 to 900 eV are reported for the first time to form massive complexes
Charged particles are extracted from the cathode and focused into the entrance aperture of the collision chamber
The main differences appear for generated molecular cation species larger than 78 u, where in Fig. 3b we depict the difference between the anion and electron induced fragmentation spectra normalized to the parent ion intensity
Summary
Superoxide anions colliding with benzene molecules at impact energies from 200 to 900 eV are reported for the first time to form massive complexes. With the aid of quantum chemistry calculations, we propose a mechanism in which a sudden double ionization of benzene and the subsequent electrostatic attraction between the dication and the anion form a stable covalently bonded C6H6O2+ molecule, that evolves towards the formation of benzene-diol conformers. Oxidative processes in benzene have been extensively studied from different points of view of scientific and technical relevance, including e.g. atmospheric reactions[8,9], surface catalyzed reactions[10] or direct mechanisms induced by metallic oxide c ations[11] Most of these procedures fall into the domain of room temperature chemical reactions, i.e. no significant kinetic energy of the reactants is required to trigger such processes. We briefly present our experimental and theoretical methods, the corresponding results are presented and discussed and some conclusions from this study are drawn in the last section
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