Dissociative Recombination of CD3OD2

The branching ratios of the different reaction pathways and the overall rate of the dissociative recombination of CD$_{3}$OD$_{2}^{+}$ were measured at the CRYRING storage ring located at the Manne Siegbahn Laboratory in Stockholm, Sweden. A preliminary analysis of the data yielded that formation of methanol accounts for only 6 $\pm$ 2% of the total reaction rate. Largely, dissociative recombination of CD$_{3}$OD$_{2}^{+}$ involves fragmentation of the C–O bond, the major process being the three-body break-up forming CD$_{3}$, OD and D (branching ratio 0.59). A non-negligible formation of interstellar methanol by the previously proposed mechanism is therefore very unlikely.