Dissociative electron attachment to gas-phase glycine

By using a high-resolution electron energy monochromator low-energy electron attachment to gas-phase glycine (H₂NCH₂COOH, or G) has been studied by means of mass spectrometric detection of the product anions. In the same way as for several other biologically relevant molecules no stable parent anion was formed by free electron attachment. The largest dissociative electron attachment (DEA) cross-section, approximately 5×10^–20 m², was observed for (G–H)^–+H at an electron energy of 1.25 eV. Glycine and formic acid (HCOOH) have several common features, because a precursor ion can be characterized by electron attachment to the unoccupied * orbital of the –COOH group. At higher incident electron energies several smaller fragment anions are formed. Except for H^–, which could not be observed in this study, there was good agreement with an earlier investigation by Gohlke et al.