Fragmentation channels of non-fullerene cationic carbon clusters

The unimolecular fragmentation channels of highly excited small cationic carbon clusters have been measured with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer after photofragmentation. The dominant channel is loss of the neutral trimer, for all CN+N = 10-27 clusters except for N = 11, 12 which decay by monomer emission, and C25+ which shows competing loss of C2 and C3. The results permit to quantify the role of the rotational entropy in the competition between monomer and trimer decays with the help of energies calculated with density functional theory. The unimolecular fragmentation channels of highly excited cationic carbon clusters have been measured with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer after photofragmentation.

Automated summary

The unimolecular fragmentation channels of highly excited cationic carbon clusters were measured and the role of rotational entropy in the competition between monomer and trimer decays was quantified. The dominant channel was found to be the loss of the neutral trimer, except for N = 11, 12 clusters which decayed by monomer emission, and C25+ cluster which showed competing loss of C2 and C3.