Ionization energies and ionization-induced structural changes in 2-phenylethylamine and its monohydrate

We report the resonance-enhanced two-photon ionization combined with various detection approaches and quantum chemical calculations of biologically relevant neurotransmitter prototypes, the most stable conformer of 2-phenylethylamine (PEA), and its monohydrate, PEA-H2O, to reveal the possible interactions between the phenyl ring and amino group in the neutral and ionic species. Extracting the ionization energies (IEs) and appearance energy was achieved by measuring the photoionization and photodissociation efficiency curves of the PEA parent and photofragment ions, together with velocity and kinetic energy-broadened spatial map images of photoelectrons. We obtained coinciding upper bounds for the IEs for PEA and PEA-H2O of 8.63 +/- 0.03 and 8.62 +/- 0.04 eV, within the range predicted by quantum calculations. The computed electrostatic potential maps show charge separation, corresponding to a negative charge on phenyl and a positive charge on the ethylamino side chain in the neutral PEA and its monohydrate; in the cations, the charge distributions naturally become positive. The significant changes in geometries upon ionization include switching of the amino group orientation from pyramidal to nearly planar in the monomer but not in the monohydrate, lengthening of the N-H center dot center dot center dot pi hydrogen bond (HB) in both species, C-alpha-C-beta bond in the side chain of the PEA+ monomer, and the intermolecular O-H center dot center dot center dot N HB in PEA-H2O cations, leading to distinct exit channels.

Automated summary

We conducted resonance-enhanced two-photon ionization experiments and quantum chemical calculations to study the interactions between the phenyl ring and amino group in the neurotransmitter prototypes 2-phenylethylamine (PEA) and its monohydrate. The ionization energies (IEs) and appearance energy of PEA and PEA-H2O were measured, and their upper bounds were found to be 8.63 +/- 0.03 and 8.62 +/- 0.04 eV, respectively. The electrostatic potential maps revealed charge separation and different geometries upon ionization, leading to distinct exit channels.