Photodetachment and dissociation dynamics of microsolvated iodide clusters

The properties of anionic clusters I-X (X=carbon dioxide, water, ammonia, benzene, phenol, aniline and nitrobenzene) and their dissociation dynamics on the neutral potential energy surface following photodetachment (PD) were studied by photoelectron-photofragment coincidence experiments. Different reaction channels were available using 4.82 eV energy photons, leading to production of iodine in the 2P3/2 and 2P 1/2 states and to both stable and dissociating neutral clusters. The partitioning of the available energy strongly favors the electron kinetic energy channel. The kinetic energy release in the fragment channel is rather small and dependent on the potential energy surface on which the process takes place. A multistep dissociative PD process is observed for the iodide-aniline cluster leading to production of zero kinetic energy electrons.