Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 25, 31118(2023) 

Fragmentation Channels of Non-Fullerene Cationic Carbon Clusters

Piero Ferrari¹, Klavs Hansen^2,3,*, Ozan Lacinbala¹, Ewald Janssens¹, and Peter Lievens¹

1 Quantum Solid-State Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

2 Center for Joint Quantum Studies and Department of Physics, School of Science, Tianjin University, 92 Weijin Road, Tianjin 300072, China

3 Lanzhou Center for Theoretical Physics, Key Laboratory of Theoretical Physics of Gansu Province, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China

* klavshansen@tju.edu.cn

Abstract

The unimolecular fragmentation channels of highly excited small cationic carbon clusters have been measured with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer  after photofragmentation. The dominant channel is loss of the neutral trimer, for all C_N⁺N=10–27 clusters except for N=11, 12 which decay by monomer  emission, and C₂₅⁺ which shows competing loss of C₂ and C₃. The results  permit to quantify the role of rotational entropy in the competition between  monomer and trimer decays with the help of energies calculated with density functional theory.