Amorphous thioacetamide (TA) ice was deposited at 10 K and was bombarded with 5 keV electrons. TA ices were shown to decompose into acetonitrile (ACN, H3C–C≡N), cyanide anion (CN−), and ketenimine (H2C=C=NH). The experiments were repeated with TA ices mixed with H2O, to assess the effect of an oxygen source. In this case, the formation of cyanate anion (OCN−) was also observed besides those seen in the pure TA ice experiment. This study is the first that aims to reveal the decomposition pathways of a thioamide upon energetic irradiation in the low-temperature ice phase.
Keresztes et al. (Wed,) studied this question.