Dissociative electron attachment to pentaerythritol tetranitrate: significant fragmentation near 0 eV.

Gas phase dissociative electron attachment (DEA) measurements to pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) are performed in a crossed electron-molecular beam experiment at high-energy resolution and high sensitivity. DEA is operative at very low energies close to approximately 0 eV showing unique features corresponding to a variety of fragment anions being formed. There is no evidence of the parent anion formation. The fragmentation yields are also observed for higher electron energies and are operative via several resonant features in the range of 0-12 eV. In contrast to nitroaromatic compounds, PETN decays more rapidly upon electron attachment and preferentially low-mass anions are formed. The dominant fragment ion formed through DEA is assigned to the nitrogen trioxide NO(3)(-) and represents about 80% of the total anion yield. Further intense ion signals are due to NO(2)(-) (11%) and O(-) (2.5%). The significant instability of PETN after attachment of an electron with virtually no kinetic energy confers a highly explosive nature to this compound.