Structural characterization of electron-induced proton transfer in the formic acid dimer anion, (HCOOH)2-, with vibrational and photoelectron spectroscopies.

The (HCOOH)(2) anion, formed by electron attachment to the formic acid dimer (FA(2)), is an archetypal system for exploring the mechanics of the electron-induced proton transfer motif that is purported to occur when neutral nucleic acid base-pairs accommodate an excess electron [K. Aflatooni, G. A. Gallup, and P. D. Burrow, J. Phys. Chem. A 102, 6205 (1998); J. H. Hendricks, S. A. Lyapustina, H. L. de Clercq, J. T. Snodgrass, and K. H. Bowen, J. Chem Phys. 104, 7788 (1996); C. Desfrancois, H. Abdoul-Carime, and J. P. Schermann, ibid. 104, 7792 (1996)]. The FA(2) anion and several of its H∕D isotopologues were isolated in the gas phase and characterized using Ar-tagged vibrational predissociation and electron autodetachment spectroscopies. The photoelectron spectrum of the FA(2) anion was also recorded using velocity-map imaging. The resulting spectroscopic information verifies the equilibrium FA(2)(-) geometry predicted by theory which features a symmetrical, double H-bonded bridge effectively linking together constituents that most closely resemble the formate ion and a dihydroxymethyl radical. The spectroscopic signatures of this ion were analyzed with the aid of calculated anharmonic vibrational band patterns.

Survey of Ar-tagged predissociation and vibrationally mediated photodetachment spectroscopies of the vinylidene anion, C2H2-.

We report predissociation spectra of Ar-tagged C(2)H(2)(-) and C(2)D(2)(-) anions, and explore vibrationally mediated photodetachment from various vibrational levels of the bare C(2)H(2)(-) ion using velocity-map imaging. Intense photodetachment resonances are observed in the C-H stretching region that are strongly correlated with vibrational hot bands in the anion photoelectron spectra, indicating that one-color, resonant two-photon photodetachment (R2PD) is complicated by excitation of vibrationally excited states with autodetaching upper levels embedded in the continuum. Isolation of the R2PD spectrum was achieved using a two-color, IR-IR scheme in which vibrational excitation and photodetachment were carried out in two separate laser interaction regions.