Determination of absolute photoionization cross-sections of alkanes and cyclo-alkanes

Absolute photoionization and dissociative photoionization cross-sections of eleven n- alkanes ( n- pentane, n -hexane, n- heptane, n- nonane, n- decane, n -undecane, n- dodecane, n- tridecane, n- tetradecane, n- pentadecane and n- hexadecane), three cyclo -alkanes (cyclopentane, methylcyclohexane and trans -decahydronaphthalene) and iso -octane were measured for photon energies from the ionization thresholds to 11.5 eV. The measurements were performed with the binary-liquid-mixture method utilizing the photoionization cross-sections of benzene as a calibration standard. The ionization energies of n -alkanes and cyclo -alkanes were also calculated at the B3P86/6-31 + +G(d,p) level and by the G3B3 method. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.