Dissociative Ionization Mechanism and Appearance Energies in Adipic Acid Revealed by Imaging Photoelectron Photoion Coincidence, Selective Deuteration, and Calculations.

Adipic acid, a model compound for oxygenated organic aerosol, has been studied at the VUV beamline of the Swiss Light Source. Internal energy selected cations were prepared by threshold photoionization using vacuum ultraviolet synchrotron radiation and imaging photoelectron photoion coincidence spectroscopy (iPEPICO). The threshold photoelectron spectrum yields a vertical ionization energy (IE) of 10.5 eV, significantly above the calculated adiabatic IE of 8.6 eV. The cationic minimum is accessible after vertical ionization by H-transfer from one of the γ-carbons to a carbonyl oxygen and is sufficiently energetic to decay by water loss at the ionization onset. The slope of the breakdown curves, quantum chemical calculations, and selective deuteration of the carboxylic hydrogens establish the dissociative photoionization mechanism. After ionization, one γ-methylene hydrogen and the two carboxylic hydrogens are randomized prior to H2O loss. On the basis of the deuteration degree in the H2O + CO-loss product at higher energies, a direct water-loss channel without complete randomization also exists. The breakdown diagram and center of gravity of the H2O + CO-loss peak were modeled to obtain 0 K appearance energies of 10.77, 10.32, and 11.53 eV for H2O + CO loss, CH2COOH loss, and H2O + CH2COOH loss from adipic acid. These agree well with the CBS-QB3 calculated values of 10.68, 10.45, and 11.57 eV, respectively, which shows that threshold photoionization can yield energetics data as long as the dissociation is statistical, even when the parent ion cannot be observed. The results can be used as a starting point for a deeper understanding of the ionization and low-energy fragmentation of organic aerosol components.