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Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Vol.110, No.28, 9020-9024, 2006
Double ionization of quaterrylene (C40H20) in water-ice at 20 K with Ly(alpha) (121.6 nm) radiation
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules undergo facile ionization in cryogenic water-ices resulting in near quantitative conversions of neutral molecules to the corresponding singly charged radical cations. Here we report, for the first time, the production and stabilization of a doubly ionized, closed shell PAH in water-ice. The large PAH quaterrylene (QTR, C40H2O) is readily photoionized and stabilized as QTR(2+) in a water- ice matrix at 20 K. The kinetic analysis of photolysis shows that the QTR2+ is formed at the expense of QTR(+), not directly from QTR. The long-axis polarized S-1-S-0 (1(1)B(3u) -> 1(1)Ag) transition for QTR2+ falls at 1.59 eV (782 nm). TD-DFT calculations at the B3LYP level predict that this transition falls at 1.85 eV (670 nm) for free gas-phase QTR(2+), within the 0.3 eV uncertainty associated with these calculations. This red shift of 0.26 eV is quite similar to the 0.24 eV red shift between the TD-DFT computational prediction for the lowest energy transition for QTR+ (1.68 eV) and its value in a water matrix (1.44 eV). These results suggest that multiple photoionization of such large PAHs in water-ice can be an efficient process in general.