Ionic and neutral optical emissions induced by He(Iα) excitation of nitriles

Abstract

Optical emission was observed from several nitriles following 58.4 nm excitation. The emission from pentafluorobenzonitrile was assigned to the parent radical cation and is compared with emission from other fluorinated aromatic cations. CN emission from acetonitrile was shown by lack of ion–photon coincidence to come from a neutral-product channel and is similar to that observed at longer excitation wavelengths. Propionitrile and allyl cyanide showed weaker CN emission, while several other nitriles gave no visible-region light emission.