A new instrument for kinetics and branching ratio studies of gas phase collisional processes at very low temperatures
Abstract
A new instrument dedicated to the kinetic study of low-temperature gas phase neutral-neutral reactions, including clustering processes, is presented. It combines a supersonic flow reactor with Vacuum Ultra-Violet (VUV) synchrotron photoionization time of flight mass spectrometry. A photoion-photoelectron coincidence detection scheme has been adopted to optimize the particle counting efficiency. The characteristics of the instrument are detailed along with its capabilities illustrated through a few results obtained at low temperatures (< 100 K) including a photoionization spectrum of n-butane, the detection of formic acid dimer formation as well as the observation of diacetylene molecules formed by the reaction between the C2H radical and C2H2.