VUV photoionization and dissociative photoionization spectroscopy of the interstellar molecule aminoacetonitrile: Theory and experiment

Photoionization of aminoacetonitrile (H2NCH2CN), a key compound in astrochemistry, yields 5 daughter ions in the 10-13.6 eV energy regime. All threshold energies, including the ionization energy of the parent molecule, have been measured for the first time using synchrotron radiation. They are reproduced in this work by high level ab initio quantum-chemical methods where numerous fragmentation pathways have been considered.