Reactions in trifluoroacetic acid (CF3COOH) induced by low energy electron attachment

Dissociative electron attachment to trifluoroacetic acid (CF3COOH) is characterized by an intense low energy shape resonance located near 1 eV and a comparatively weaker core excited resonance located near 7 eV. The shape resonance decomposes into the fragment ions CF3COO−, CF2COO−, and CF2-. The underlying reactions include simple bond cleavage but also more complex sequences involving multiple bond cleavages, rearrangement in the precursor ion and formation of new molecules (HF, CO2). The core excited resonance additionally decomposes into F−, CF3- and probably metastable CO2-.