Ionization of glycerin molecule by electron impact

The methods and results of studying the yield of positive ions produced due to direct and dissociative electron impact ionization of the glycerin molecule are described. The experiment is carried out using two independent setups, namely, a setup with a monopole mass spectrometer employing the method of crossing electron and molecular beams and a setup with a hypocycloidal electron spectrometer with the gas-filled cell. The mass spectra of the glycerin molecule are studied in the range of mass numbers of 10–95 amu at various temperatures. The energy dependences of the effective cross sections of the glycerin molecular ions produced by a monoenergetic electron beam are obtained and analyzed; using these dependences, the appearance energies of fragment ions are determined. The dynamics of the glycerin molecule fragment ions formation is investigated in the temperature range of 300–340 K.