Electron-driven processes in enantiomeric forms of glutamic acid initiated by low-energy resonance electron attachment

Low-energy (0-14 eV) resonance electron interaction and fragment species produced by dissociative electron attachment (DEA) for enantiomeric forms of glutamic acid (Glu) are studied under gas-phase conditions by means of DEA spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations. Contrary to a series of amino acids studied earlier employing the DEA technique, the most abundant species are not associated with the elimination of a hydrogen atom from the parent molecular negative ion. Besides this less intense closed-shell [Glu - H](-) fragment, only two mass-selected negative ions, [Glu - 19](-) and [Glu - 76](-), are detected within the same electron energy region, with the yield maximum observed at around 0.9 eV. This value matches well the energy of vertical electron attachment into the lowest normally empty pi* COOH molecular orbital of Glu located at 0.88 eV according to the present B3LYP/6-31G(d) calculations. Although the detection of asymmetric DEA properties a priori is not accessible under the present experimental conditions, "chirality non-conservation" can be associated with some decay channels. Evidently, the measured spectra for the L- and D-forms are found to be identical, the results, nevertheless, being of interest for the forthcoming experiments utilizing spin-polarized electron beam as a chiral factor in the framework of conventional DEA technique.