Dissociative electron attachment to methyl isocyanide

We experimentally probed the dissociation of methyl isocyanide, CH 3 NC, via low-energy electron attachment. We have measured the absolute dissociative electron attachment (DEA) cross section for each of the produced ions as a function of incident electron energy. We were able to observe the CH 2 - , CH 3 - , CN - , CNC - , CHNC - and CH 2 NC - anionic fragments as DEA products. Our experimental results are consistent with a previous report, and in addition, we observed the CH 2 - anion for the first time. To support these experimental results, we also have performed density functional theory (DFT) calculation at the B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ level of theory to find out which reaction channel(s) lead to the formation of a given anion. Graphic Abstract