Isomer effects on neutral-loss dissociation channels of nitrogen-substituted PAH dications

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Auteurs principaux: Srivastav, Sumit, Maclot, Sylvain, Domaracka, Alicja, Díaz-Tendero, Sergio, Rousseau, Patrick
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Srivastav, Sumit
Maclot, Sylvain
Domaracka, Alicja
Díaz-Tendero, Sergio
Rousseau, Patrick
author_facet Srivastav, Sumit
Maclot, Sylvain
Domaracka, Alicja
Díaz-Tendero, Sergio
Rousseau, Patrick
contents We investigate two nitrogen-containing isomers of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), quinoline (Q) and isoquinoline (IQ), of composition C$_9$H$_7$N in collisions with 7~keV O$^+$ and 48~keV O$^{6+}$ projectile ions. Employing ion-ion coincidence mass spectrometry, we determine branching ratios for H-loss, C$_2$H$_2$-loss, and HCN-loss dissociation channels of Q$^{2+}$ and IQ$^{2+}$. The overall contribution of HCN-loss is found to be the dominant decay channel. A comparison with the results of a parallel experiment on naphthalene, the simplest PAH, reveals that HCN-loss in both isomers has a higher propensity than the analogous C$_2$H$_2$-loss of naphthalene. The positional identity of the nitrogen atom in the two isomers mainly manifests in many-body fragmentation of their dications. Potential energy surfaces of Q$^{2+}$ and IQ$^{2+}$ are further computed to explore complete fragmentation mechanisms. Parent dications (Q$^{2+}$ and IQ$^{2+}$) are identified to isomerize via seven-membered ring structures prior to elimination of C$_2$H$_2$ and HCN. While prompt dissociation is the primary pathway, the dominant channel of each neutral-loss class also exhibits delayed fragmentation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_13631
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Isomer effects on neutral-loss dissociation channels of nitrogen-substituted PAH dications
Srivastav, Sumit
Maclot, Sylvain
Domaracka, Alicja
Díaz-Tendero, Sergio
Rousseau, Patrick
Chemical Physics
We investigate two nitrogen-containing isomers of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), quinoline (Q) and isoquinoline (IQ), of composition C$_9$H$_7$N in collisions with 7~keV O$^+$ and 48~keV O$^{6+}$ projectile ions. Employing ion-ion coincidence mass spectrometry, we determine branching ratios for H-loss, C$_2$H$_2$-loss, and HCN-loss dissociation channels of Q$^{2+}$ and IQ$^{2+}$. The overall contribution of HCN-loss is found to be the dominant decay channel. A comparison with the results of a parallel experiment on naphthalene, the simplest PAH, reveals that HCN-loss in both isomers has a higher propensity than the analogous C$_2$H$_2$-loss of naphthalene. The positional identity of the nitrogen atom in the two isomers mainly manifests in many-body fragmentation of their dications. Potential energy surfaces of Q$^{2+}$ and IQ$^{2+}$ are further computed to explore complete fragmentation mechanisms. Parent dications (Q$^{2+}$ and IQ$^{2+}$) are identified to isomerize via seven-membered ring structures prior to elimination of C$_2$H$_2$ and HCN. While prompt dissociation is the primary pathway, the dominant channel of each neutral-loss class also exhibits delayed fragmentation.
title Isomer effects on neutral-loss dissociation channels of nitrogen-substituted PAH dications
topic Chemical Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.13631