Surface induced dissociation of the protonated ethanol molecular ion, protonated ethanol dimer, and protonated ethanol trimer on a stainless steel surface covered by hydrocarbons was investigated over the incident ion energy range 10-80 eV. Mass spectra of the product ions were recorded and from them the dependencies of the relative abundance of the product ions on the collision energy (CERMS, collision energy resolved mass spectra) were obtained. The dissociation kinetics follows the unimolecular decomposition model of a surface-excited polyatomic projectile behaving as a statistical ensemble. The CERMS curves of the three projectiles, normalized to the same number of internal degrees of freedom, fit each other over the respective energy regions, and matched together provide information on the break-down pattern of the surface-excited protonated ethanol trimer over a wide energy range. This clearly shows that surface collisions can be used to impart in a defined manner a certain excitation energy to the projectile ion. The binding energy of an ethanol monomer in the protonated trimer and in the protonated dimer was estimated from the data as 0.95 and 1.6 eV, respectively, in good agreement with earlier data. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.