Ion imaging study of dissociative charge transfer in the N2+ + CH4 system

The Selective Role of Long-Range Forces in the Stereodynamics of Ion-Molecule Reactions: The He+ +Methyl Formate Case From Guided-Ion-Beam Experiments

Long-range intermolecular forces play a crucial role in controlling the outcome of ion-molecule chemical reactions, such as those determining the disappearance of organic or inorganic "complex" molecules recently detected in various regions of the interstellar medium due to collisions with abundant interstellar atomic ions (e.g. H⁺ and He⁺ ). Theoretical treatments, for example, based on simple capture models, are nowadays often adopted to evaluate the collision-energy dependence of reactive cross sections and the temperature dependent rate coefficients of many ion-molecule reactions. The obtained results are widely used for the modelling of phenomena occurring in different natural environments or technological applications such as astrophysical and laboratory plasmas. Herein it is demonstrated, through a combined experimental and theoretical investigation on a prototype ion-molecule reaction (He⁺ +methyl formate), that the dynamics, investigated in detail, shows some intriguing features that can lead to rate coefficients at odds with the expectations (e.g. Arrhenius versus anti-Arrhenius behaviour). Therefore, this study casts light on some new and general guidelines to be properly taken into account for a suitable evaluation of rate coefficients of ion-molecule reactions.

Imaging the dynamics of ion–molecule reactions

A range of ion–molecule reactions have been studied in the last years using the crossed-beam ion imaging technique, from charge transfer and proton transfer to nucleophilic substitution and elimination.

Ion-molecule reaction dynamics: Velocity map imaging studies of N(+) and O(+) with CD3OD

We present a study of the charge transfer reactions of the atomic ions N(+)and O(+) with methanol in the collision energy range from ∼2 to 4 eV. Charge transfer is driven primarily by energy resonance, although the widths of the product kinetic energy distributions suggest that significant interchange between relative translation and product vibration occurs. Charge transfer with CD3OD is more exoergic for N(+), and the nascent parent ion products appear to be formed in excited B̃ and C̃ electronic states, and fragment to CD2OD(+) by internal conversion and vibrational relaxation to the ground electronic state. The internal excitation imparted to the parent ion is sufficient to result in loss of one or two D atoms from the carbon atom. The less exoergic charge transfer reaction of O(+) forms nascent parent ions in the excited à state, and internal conversion to the ground state only results in ejection of single D atom. Selected isotopomers of methanol were employed to identify reaction products, demonstrating that deuterium atom loss from nascent parent ions occurs by C-D bond cleavage. Comparison of the kinetic energy distributions for charge transfer to form CD3OD(+) and CD2OD(+) by D atom loss with the known dynamics for hydride abstraction from a carbon atom provides strong evidence that the D loss products are formed by dissociative charge transfer rather than hydride (deuteride) transfer. Isotopic labeling also demonstrates that chemical reaction in the N(+) + CD3OD system to form NO(+) + CD4 does not occur in the energy range of these experiments, contrary to earlier speculation in the literature.