The ion kinetic energy spectra of some aromatic hydrocarbons

Abstract

Abstract The technique of ion kinetic energy spectroscopy has been applied to the study of the aromatic hydrocarbons benzene, toluene, naphthalene, 2‐methyl naphthalene, biphenyl and anthracene. The method is illustrated by a complete study of naphthalene in which transitions of metastable doubly‐ and singly‐charged ions are listed, including reactions in which singly‐charged ions are formed by collision induced charge‐exchange reactions of doubly‐charged ions and by the double process of charge‐exchange and metastable decomposition with loss of one or two hydrogen atoms. Decompositions of doubly‐charged ions into two singly‐charged ions, together with the kinetic energies released in these decompositions, are also given for all the compounds studied.