Photochemical generation of methane within NO-ethene heteroclusters

Multiphoton ionization time-of-flight mass spectroscopy has been used to study heterogeneous cluster ions containing. NO and ethene. As previously noted in the literature for other NO clusters, NO-ethene heterogeneous cluster ions show a tendency to form even-electron species. In addition to this effect, we also observe a number of ion-molecule reactions that occur within the heterogeneous clusters. These reactions lead to cluster ion series which contain new molecular species. Deuterium isotope experiments explicitly indicate that both CH₄ and NO₂ are formed as cluster ion products. We speculate that the methane formation occurs via this reaction within the photoionized cluster: {C₂H₄}_m+1{NO⁺}→{C ₂H₄}_m{NO}_n{CH₄ ⁺} +N₂O + CO.