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.