Fission of charged alanine dipeptides

Abstract

In this work we have performed for the first time a systematic analysis of the dissociation and fission pathways of neutral, singly and doubly charged alanine dipeptide ions with the aim to identify the fission mechanism and the most probable fragmentation channels of these type of molecules. We demonstrate the importance of rearrangement of the molecule structure during the fission process. This rearrangement may include transition to another isomer or a quasi-molecular state before actual separation of the daughter fragments begins.