First observation of four-body breakup in electron recombination: C2D+5

Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Oct 8;93(15):153201. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.153201. Epub 2004 Oct 4.

Abstract

We report the first observation of four-body breakup in electron dissociative recombination of a molecular ion: C2D+5. In an ion storage ring experiment, the branching ratio for the process C2D+5 + e(-)-->C2D2 + D + D + D was determined to be 13%. This means that three covalent chemical bonds are broken as a result of the action of a single electron. This is the first time a four-body breakup of chemical bonds has been observed in a low-energy binary reaction.