A low-energy crossed-beam study of the hydride abstraction and charge transfer reactions of C+ with CH3OH

We present a study of the hydride abstraction and charge transfer reactions of C⁺ with CH₃OH in the relative energy range from 1.2 to 2.8 eV. Both reaction processes are direct in this collision energy range. The charge transfer reaction proceeds through large impact parameter collisions; the kinetic energy distributions indicate that the final product vibrational states are energy resonant with the recombination energy of the carbon cation. The hydride abstraction channel is a stripping reaction in which the product kinetic energy distributions have an unusual Gaussian shape, suggestive of the projection of the ground vibrational state wavefunction for the breaking C-H bond onto the continuum wavefunction associated with separation of the nascent products.