Protonated water clusters and their black body radiation induced fragmentation

Thomas Schindler, Christian Berg, Gereon Niedner-Schatteburg, Vladimir E. Bondybey

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

134 Scopus citations

Abstract

Protonated water clusters H+(H2O)n, n = 5,...,65 and their perdeuterated analogues were produced in a discharge source and stored in an electromagnetic ICR-ion trap under collision-free conditions. The rates of their fragmentation or 'evaporation' due to absorption of the 300 K black body background radiation exhibit an overall τ ∼ 1/n dependence. Local deviations of some clusters (e.g. n = 21 or 55) from the overall trend are attributed to their higher stabilities. The fragmentation is modeled by extrapolating macroscopic water droplet evaporation to the microscopic clusters.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)301-308
Number of pages8
JournalChemical Physics Letters
Volume250
Issue number3-4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Mar 1996

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