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HELEN K. GERARDI, CHRIS M. LEAVITT, ANDREW F. DEBLASE AND MARK A. JOHNSON, Yale University, Department of Chemistry, New Haven, CT.
We have isolated the stable form of the formic acid dimer anion (HCOOH)2-, a model for electron-induced proton transfer between nucleic acid base-pairs, in the gas phase. The vibrational signatures of this species and its various isotopomers were investigated using Ar predissociation and photodetachment spectroscopies in the 600-3800 cm-1 range. We relate the experimental infrared transitions of the anion to those predicted for its calculated lowest energy structure in order to determine if a proton transfer event does in fact occur upon excess electron attachment to this simple hydrogen-bonded dimer. Additionally, we determined its vertical detachment energy (VDE), 1.8 eV, using velocity-map photoelectron imaging.