Electron-impact spectroscopy of acetaldehyde

Abstract

Acetaldehyde has been studied by the technique of low‐energy variable‐angle electron energy‐loss spectroscopy. With this method the low‐lying spin‐forbidden transitions have been located via the behavior of the relative differential cross sections, providing the first identification by this technique of such states in acetaldehyde. High‐lying states were also investigated and some assignments of dipole symmetry‐forbidden/quadrupole symmetry‐allowed excitations were made on the basis of characteristic angular behavior, evident for the asymmetric molecule acetaldehyde just as for the symmetric molecules formaldehyde and acetone. Through a comparison of the acetaldehyde results with those for formaldehyde and acetone the trends in the allowed and forbidden transition energies were examined as a function of methyl substitution and found to be relatively linear.

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