Valence shell threshold photoelectron spectroscopy of the CHxCN (x = 0-2) and CNC radicals.

We present the photoelectron spectroscopy of four radical species, CHxCN (x = 0-2) and CNC, formed in a microwave discharge flow-tube reactor by consecutive H abstractions from CH3CN (CHxCN + F → CHx-1CN + HF (x = 1-3)). The spectra were obtained combining tunable vacuum ultraviolet synchrotron radiation with double imaging electron/ion coincidence techniques, which yielded mass-selected threshold photoelectron spectra. The results obtained for H2CCN complement existing ones while for the other radicals the data represent the first observation of their (single-photon) ionizing transitions. In the case of H2CCN, Franck-Condon calculations have been performed in order to assign the vibrational structure of the X+ 1A1←X 2B1 ionizing transition. A similar treatment for the HCCN, CCN, and CNC radicals appeared to be more complicated mainly because a Renner-Teller effect strongly affects the vibrational levels of the ground electronic state of the HCCN+, CCN, and CNC species. Nevertheless, the first adiabatic ionization energies of these radicals are reported and compared to our ab initio calculated values, leading to new values for enthalpies of formation (ΔfH2980(HCCN+(X2A'))=1517±12kJmol-1,ΔfH2980(CCN(X2Π))=682±13kJmol-1, and ΔfH2980(CNC(X2Πg))=676±12kJmol-1), which are of fundamental importance for astrochemistry.