Unimolecular decomposition of acetone ions and dimethyl-mercury ions studied by photoelectron-photoion coincidence spectroscopy

Abstract

The unimolecular decays of acetone ions and dimethylmercury ions have been studied over a range of almost 10 eV initial internal energy. Both the product translational energy distributions and the branching ratios show deviations at high initial internal energies from the predictions of the quasiequilibrium theory. It seems possible that electronically excited methyl radicals are produced in some of the decompositions.