Absolute photoionization cross-sections of selected furanic and lactonic potential biofuels

•We presented a method to derive photoionization cross sections of daughter ions using photoionization mass spectrometry.•The method is tested and confirmed with furanic compounds, for which literature values are available.•Photoionization cross sections of four lactones and their dissociative ionization fragments are measured.

Absolute photoionization cross sections of the molecules γ-butyrolactone (GBL), γ-valerolactone (GVL), α-angelicalactone (AAL), and γ-methylene-γ-butyrolactone (GMGB), including partial ionization cross sections for dissociative ionization, are measured. The experiments are carried out using photoionization mass spectrometry (PIMS) at the Advanced Light Source, and an orthogonal extraction time-of-flight spectrometer is used for mass analysis. Photoionization of furan, 2-methyl furan (2-MF), and 2,5-dimethyl furan (2,5-DMF) is also investigated to confirm the accuracy of our measurements, which show a good agreement of the absolute partial photoionization cross sections with literature values. CBS-QB3 calculations of adiabatic ionization energies (AIE) and appearance energies (AE) agree well with the experimental results.

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