PNNL

Abstract

We have studied the dissociation of acetone molecular cations to acetyl cations following collision with a monolayer surface of fluorinated alkyl thiol (FC12) self-assembled on Au (111) substrate at 13, 25.2 and 49.6 eV kinetic energies. Three energetically distinct dissociation processes contribute to total dissociation in this energy range. At all energies there is a common dissociation pathway involving loss of nearly all of the parent ion’s kinetic energy in the collision process. Fragment ions resulting from this dissociation mechanism are scattered over a wide range of angles. The second pathway, observed at 25.2 and 49.6 eV kinetic energy is delayed dissociation of collisionally excited acetone cations after only a small fraction of the ion’s kinetic energy is lost in the collision process. Fragment ions resulting from this unique dynamics feature are scattered close to the surface parallel. These dissociations take place after the excited ions have passed through the collision region and the energy analyzer and prior to their entering the mass analyzer. At 49.6 eV kinetic energy, a small intensity fragment ion peak appears at intermediate kinetic energy spectra between the low energy loss and the highly inelastic scattering peaks.