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Benzaldehyde is a simple aromatic aldehyde and has a wide range of applications in the food, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries. The positive electron affinity of this compound suggests that low-energy electrons can be easily trapped by neutral benzaldehyde. In the present study, we investigated the formation of negative ions following electron attachment to benzaldehyde in the gas-phase. Calculations on elastic electron scattering from benzaldehyde indicate a π* valence bound state of the anion at −0.48 eV and three π* shape resonances (0.78, 2.48 and 5.51 eV). The excited state spectrum of the neutral benzaldehyde is also reported to complement our findings. Using mass spectrometry, we observed the formation of the intact anionic benzaldehyde at ∼0 eV. We ascribe the detection of the benzaldehyde anion to stabilization of the π* valence bound state upon dissociative electron attachment to a benzaldehyde dimer. In addition, we report the cross sections for nine fragment anions formed through electron attachment to benzaldehyde. Investigations carried out with partially deuterated benzaldehyde show that the hydrogen loss is site-selective with respect to the incident electron energy. In addition, we propose several dissociation pathways, backed up by quantum chemical calculations on their thermodynamic thresholds. The threshold calculations also support that the resonances formed at higher energies lead to fragment anions observable by mass spectrometry, whereas the resonances at low electron energies decay only by electron autodetachment.

We have investigated the effect of microsolvation on the π* shape resonances of uracil, referred to as π1* and π2* in the order of increasing energy. Our study considered uracil–water aggregates with six solvent molecules obtained from Monte Carlo simulations in the liquid phase. To explore the ensemble statistics, we combined scattering calculations, performed in the static exchange and static exchange plus polarization approximations, with linear regressions of virtual orbital energies to the scattering results. In general, the solvent molecules stabilize the anion states, and the lower lying π1* resonance becomes a bound state in most of the solute–water clusters. We also discuss how the strength of the H bonds can affect the energies of the anion states, in addition to the number and donor/acceptor characters of those bonds. The thermal distributions for the vertical attachment energies, obtained from 133 statistically uncorrelated solute–solvent clusters, are significantly broad in the energy scale of the autoionization widths. The distributions for the π1* and π2* anion states slightly overlap, thus giving rise to a quasi-continuum of attachment energies below ≲2.5 eV, in contrast to the gas phase picture of electron attachment to well separated resonances below the electronic excitation threshold. Both the stabilization of the anion states and the spread of attachment energies could be expected to favor the dissociative electron attachment processes believed to underlie the electron-induced damage to biomolecules.

International audience; We report on the low energy anion spectra of 5-cyanateuracil (5-OCNU) and 5-thiocyanateouracil (5-SCNU), which have been the suggested potential radiosensitizers for use in cancer therapy [L. Chomicz et al., J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 4, 2853-2857 (2013)]. Employing bound state and scattering calculations, we obtained, for both molecules, a dipole bound state, a pi* valence bound state, and four pi* resonances, besides a sigma*(SCN) resonance for 5-SCNU. The cyanate and thiocyanate sub-stituents give rise to additional long-lived pi* resonances, compared to 5-halouracil radiosensitizers. From the reaction thresholds and the expected vibronic couplings among the anion states, efficient production of SCN and CN anions and radical fragments should be observed in dissociative electron attachment measurements for 5-SCNU. The corresponding dissociation processes in 5-OCNU are expected to be less effective in view of the lack of a long-lived sigma*(OCN) shape resonance and the little sigma* admixture into the pi* resonances located on the cyanate group. The present results thus indicate 5-SCNU as a more promising radiosensitizer at sub-excitation energies. Published by AIP Publishing.