Experimental cross-sections energy dependence and an ab initio electronic structure survey of the ground singlet potential surface for reactive Li(+) + n-C(3)H(7)Cl collisions at low energies.

Reactive collisions between n-C(3)H(7)Cl molecules and lithium ions both in their ground electronic state have been studied in the 0.05-7.00 eV center of mass energy range using an octopole radio frequency guided-ion beam apparatus developed in our laboratory and recently modified. At low collision energies, dehydrohalogenation reactions leading to Li(C(3)H(6))(+) and Li(HCl)(+) are the main reaction channels, while on increasing energies C(3)H(7)(+) and C(2)H(3)(+) formation become dominant. Cross section energy dependences in arbitrary units for all these reactions have been measured. Also, ab initio electronic structure calculations at the MP2 level have been performed to obtain information about the potential energy surface on which the reactive processes take place. The reactants' entrance channel leads to the formation of a stable Li-n-C(3)H(7)Cl ion-molecule adduct that, following an intrinsic-reaction-coordinate pathway and surmounting a transition state, isomerizes to Li-i-C(3)H(7)Cl. From this second minimum, dehydrohalogenation reactions for both n-C(3)H(7)Cl and i-C(3)H(7)Cl share a common reaction pathway leading to the same products. All potential barriers explored by reactions always lie below the reactants' energy. The entrance reaction channel Li-n-C(3)H(7)Cl adduct also leads adiabatically to C(3)H(7)(+) formation which, on increasing collision energy generates C(2)H(3)(+)via a unimolecular decomposition. A qualitative interpretation of the experimental results based on our ab initio calculations is also given.