Abstract:
In the low-energy electron impacts with a liquid beam of methanol, we detect the anionic yields using a linear time-of-flight mass spectrometer. With help of quantum chemistry calculations, we further identify these anionic products as the hydrogen-bonding clusters,
i.e., CH
3OH·CH
3O
− and CH
3OH·CH
3OH·CH
3O
−, and their singly occupied molecular orbitals show the valence-bound feature. In contrast, CH
3OH·CH
3OH
− and CH
3OH·CH
3OH·CH
3OH
− are unfavored in energetics with respect to the dehydrogenated ones, although they also correspond to the minima on the potential energy surfaces. Furthermore, the singly occupied molecular orbitals of CH
3OH·CH
3OH
− and CH
3OH·CH
3OH·CH
3OH
− indicate the typical feature of aqueous-solvated electron.