Low-Energy Photoelectron Spectrum and Dissociative Photoionization of the Smallest Amides: Formamide and Acetamide

The threshold photoelectron spectrum and low-energy dissociative photoionization processes of formamide and acetamide were studied using photoelectron photoion coincidence spectroscopy and vacuum ultraviolet synchrotron radiation. Ab initio calculations and Franck-Condon simulations helped us assign the main vibrational progressions in the spectra and enabled the first conclusive assignment of the first electronically excited states. The adiabatic ionization energies to the (X) over tilde (+) and (A) over tilde (+) states of formamide (10.236 +/- 0.004 and 10.643 +/- 0.015 eV) and acetamide (9.734 +/- 0.008 and 10.282 +/- 0.020 eV) have been re-evaluated and spectroscopic transitions were assigned using a Franck-Condon approach. The cationic potential energy surface was explored to rationalize the observed fragmentation patterns and to construct a statistical model, which was fitted to the experimental breakdown diagram. Thermochemical thresholds were measured and calculated for H, CO, and NH2 loss from HCONH2+ as well as for CH3, NH2, CO, HCCO, and NH3 loss from CH3CONH2+. We present the first comprehensive, experimental and theoretical treatise of these fragmentation processes. The statistical model confirms fast internal conversion between the (X) over tilde (+) and (A) over tilde (+) states in formamide, as H transfer in CO loss is shown to take place on the excited state surface. It also explains the five almost simultaneously opening dissociation channels in the acetamide cation quantitatively. The derived 0 K appearance energies have been confirmed by ab initio calculations and by comparison with state-of-the-art thermochemical data, and some of the previous results have been revised by more than 10 times their stated uncertainty.