Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol.116, No.13, 5530-5543, 2002
Collision-induced dissociation of formaldehyde cations: The effects of vibrational mode, collision energy, and impact parameter
We report a study of collision-induced dissociation (CID) of H2CO+, including measurement of the effects of collision energy (E-col) and five different H2CO+ vibrational modes on the CID integral and differential cross sections. CID was studied for collision with both Xe and Ne, and the Ne results provide a very detailed probe of energy transfer collisions leading to CID. The CID appearance threshold is found to depend only on total energy, but for all energies above threshold, vibrational energy is far more effective at driving CID than E-col, with some mode-specificity. Results are fit with an impact parameter-based mechanism, and considerable insight is obtained into the origins of the E-col and vibrational effects. A series of ab initio and RRKM calculations were also performed to help interpret the results.