Cleavage patterns of carbon clusters from impact-induced fragmentation of C−N, N = 10–50

Collision-induced electron detachment of carbon clusters

“…For the clusters from LV-g C\ to C\ , +"# is rather low for some clusters such as C\ , C\ , and C\ , and the existence of linear-chains is inferred. Coexistence of chains and rings in this mass region has been reported by Whetten et al [17] or Von Helden et al [5b] in which they reported that the chain isomer contents of C\ to C\ (and C\ ) are rather higher than that of other clusters between C\ to C\ and change between 25 to 85% depending on the condition in which clusters are produced.…”

“…For the anions, they reported that both isomers coexist from C\ through C\ . Experimental studies on the collision-induced processes of carbon cluster ions with surfaces have been carried out intensively in the past five years [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20]. We have concentrated on the structures of carbon clusters and shown that the electron detachment efficiency of cluster anions upon collisions with a solid surface strongly correlates to the structures of incident clusters [6][7][8][9].…”

Electron detachment and fragmentation in collisions between 50 keV C − n (1 ≤ n ≤ 86) clusters and H2

“…A fullerene mix was placed directly in the ion source and heated to vaporize the fullerenes, and the negative fullerene ions are then produced as a result of electron attachment or in some cases fragmentation. It shall be stressed that cluster ions in this interval do exist and can be produced in other types of ion sources [3]. The intensity of fullerene ions varied over 8 orders of magnitude in the n interval from 32 to 86, with C − 60 as the most intense beam [10].…”

“…Based on these spectra estimates of vertical electron affinities have been obtained [1,2]. It is normally accepted wisdom [3] that clusters C n with n ≤ 10 take the form of linear chains, while for 11 ≤ n < 32 cyclic structures dominate (see however [4]). For n ≥ 32 the cage structure (fullerenes) may dominate depending on the production method, especially so for the negative clusters [5,6].…”

“…For n ≥ 32 the cage structure (fullerenes) may dominate depending on the production method, especially so for the negative clusters [5,6]. Loss of C 2 is associated with fullerene structures whereas loss of C 3 is a dominant fragment pathway for chains and rings [3]. If one goes a step further and asks for explanations of positive and negative fragmentation patterns resulting from such collisions, also ionization energies and fragmentation energies come into play.…”