Preparation and photoelectron spectrum of the glycine molecular anion: Assignment to a dipole-bound electron species with a high-dipole moment, non-zwitterionic form of the neutral core.

We report the gas-phase preparation of negatively charged glycine as well as the Gly·(H2O)1,2- complexes by entrainment of the neutral precursor into an ionized supersonic expansion tuned to optimize the (H2O)n-·Arm clusters. The photoelectron spectrum of Gly- displays the signature of a dipole-bound species, with sufficient vibrational fine structure to characterize the core neutral as a higher energy, non-zwitterionic isomer of the amino acid. © 2004 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]