We report partial cross sections for the dissociative electron attachment to pyruvic acid. A rich fragmentation dynamics is observed. Electronic structure calculations facilitate the identification of complex rearrangement reactions that occur during the dissociation. Furthermore, a number of fragment anions produced at electron energies close to 0 eV are observed, that cannot originate from single electron–molecule collisions. We ascribe their production to secondary reactions of the transient anions with neutral molecules. Such reactions turn out to be unusually efficient; the most probable reason for this is that they proceed via the formation of a double-hydrogen-bonded complex followed by an ultrafast proton transfer between the reaction partners.

中文翻译：

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丙酮酸中的离解电子键和阴离子诱导的二聚作用

我们报告了对丙酮酸的解离电子附着的部分横截面。观察到了丰富的碎片动力学。电子结构计算有助于确定解离过程中发生的复杂重排反应。此外，观察到在电子能量接近0 eV时产生的许多碎片阴离子，它们不能源于单个电子-分子碰撞。我们将它们的产生归因于瞬态阴离子与中性分子的二次反应。事实证明，这种反应异常有效。造成这种情况的最可能原因是，它们通过形成双氢键结合的复合物进行，然后在反应伙伴之间进行超快的质子转移。