Ionization and dissociation of the trifluoromethyl halides by electron impact

Abstract

Relative abundances and appearance potentials are reported for positive and negative ions observed in CF4, CF3CI, CF3Br, and CF3I. The kinetic-energy distribution of positive ions is obtained by means of a "beam-deflection" technique. These data combined with that of recent thermochemical and spectroscopic studies permit a new calculation of the ionization potential of the CF3 radical of 9.3 ± 0.2 electron volts, as well as estimates of fluorocarbon bond-dissociation energies. The energetics of probable dissociation processes are discussed.