Rates and Products of the Dissociative Recombination of C3H7+ in Low-Energy Electron Collisions

This paper presents a study of the dissociative recombination of C3H7+ with electrons in a heavy-ion storage ring, CRYRING. Cross sections were measured as a function of kinetic energy and found to be extremely rapid with a dependence of E-1.10±0.01. The recombination cross section was integrated to yield a thermal rate coefficient of 1.9 × 10-6 cm3 s-1. Product branching ratios were measured and proved to be quite complex. Although 16 channels are energetically accessible at 0 eV, it was not possible to assign branching ratios to all channels; some related channels were combined in the analysis. The results show that the dissociation channel corresponding to loss of a single hydrogen atom dominates, with a branching ratio of 0.42. Multiple H-loss channels are also observed. Product channels that involve breaking a C−C bond have a combined branching ratio ranging from 0.34 to 0.39.