Electron impact ionization of glycolaldehyde

Positive ion formation upon electron impact ionization of the monomeric and dimeric form of glycolaldehyde is studied with high electron energy resolution. In the effusive neutral beam of evaporated monomeric glycolaldehyde some ions with a mass larger than the monomer indicate the presence of weakly bound neutral dimers. The yield of all ions that originate from the electron impact ionization of these neutral dimers exhibit a strong temperature dependence that can be interpreted as being due to the formation of dimers via three body collisions and thermal decomposition of the dimeric form back into monomers at higher temperatures. Ion efficiency curves are measured and analyzed for the 10 most abundant product cations of monomeric glycolaldehyde. The appearance energies of the parent ion signals of the monomer and dimer of glycolaldehyde (10.2 and 9.51 eV, respectively) are lower than the appearance energy of the parent cation of the more complex sugar deoxyribose that was recently determined to be 10.51 eV.