Dissociative Electron Attachment to 2-Chlorotoluene: Unusual Temperature Effects for the Formation of Cl-

Abstract Dissociative electron attachment to 2-Chlorotoluene has been studied experimentally. The formed Cl - fragment appears in the energy range from 0 to 2 eV. Increasing the temperature of the target molecule results in a decrease of the height of the threshold peak (∼0 eV) but in a considerable increase of the height of the second peak at 0.78 eV. Such behaviour was observed only rarely and does not occur in similar molecules. We have analysed the out-of-plane vibrations and calculated approximate potential energy curves for the neutral and anionic states. Possible explanations of the observed temperature dependence are discussed.