The influence of the trapping potential on the attachment of a second electron to stored metal cluster and fullerene anions

Abstract Singly charged anionic clusters are exposed to a bath of simultaneously stored electrons in ion cyclotron resonance (Penning) traps and thus, dianions are produced. The dianion yield is found to be a function of the potential well depth. As an example, the attachment of electrons to size-selected gold cluster anions Au 25 1− from a laser vaporization source has been studied in detail by time-of-flight mass analysis after ejection of all ions from the trap. Furthermore, the investigation is extended to fullerene anions C 70 1− that are produced by laser desorption from a fullerene target in the external source of a Fourier-transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometer…