Dissociation of C6H5T Following Beta Decay

Abstract

The relative abundance of the various charged fragments formed following beta decay of mono tritiated benzene was measured with a specially designed mass spectrometer. In nearly every case the C–He bond was ruptured, the charge remaining with C₆H₅⁺. In 28% of the events the C₆H₅⁺ species were further excited to produce more than 30 different charged fragments. Comparison of this spectra with the electron impact data on benzene is made to arrive at an estimate of the energies involved in the initial excitation and the results are found to be in essential agreement with those of other tritiated hydrocarbons. The molecular excitation of benzene following beta decay is then shown to result probably from a sudden electronic perturbation following the formation of the doubly charged He³ nucleus. Some results on the dependence of the collection efficiency of a given ion on its kinetic energy are also discussed.