Reaction Pathways of Water Dimer Following Single Ionization

J Phys Chem A. 2024 Mar 7;128(9):1593-1599. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpca.3c07958. Epub 2024 Feb 26.

Abstract

Water dimer (H2O)2─a vital component of the earth's atmosphere─is an important prototypical hydrogen-bonded system. It provides direct insights into fundamental chemical and biochemical processes, e.g., proton transfer and ionic supramolecular dynamics, occurring in astro- and atmospheric chemistry. Exploiting a purified molecular beam of water dimer and multimass ion imaging, we report the simultaneous detection of all generated ion products of (H2O)2+ fragmentation following single ionization. Detailed information about ion yields and reaction energetics of 13 ion-radical pathways, 6 of which are new, of (H2O)2+ are presented, including strong 18O-isotope effects.