Dissociative electron attachment to C(2)F(5) radicals

Dissociative electron attachment to the reactive C(2)F(5) molecular radical has been investigated with two complimentary experimental methods; a single collision beam experiment and a new flowing afterglow Langmuir probe technique. The beam results show that F(-) is formed close to zero electron energy in dissociative electron attachment to C(2)F(5). The afterglow measurements also show that F(-) is formed in collisions between electrons and C(2)F(5) molecules with rate constants of 3.7 × 10(-9) cm(3) s(-1) to 4.7 × 10(-9) cm(3) s(-1) at temperatures of 300-600 K. The rate constant increases slowly with increasing temperature, but the rise observed is smaller than the experimental uncertainty of 35%.