Ultraviolet laser ionization studies of 1-fluoronaphthalene clusters and density functional theory calculations

This paper studies supersonic jet-cooled 1-fluoronaphthalene (1FN) clusters by ultraviolet (UV) laser ionization at 281 nm in a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. The (1FN)_n⁺ (n=1–3) series cluster ions are observed where the signal intensity decreases with increasing cluster size. The effects of sample inlet pressures and ionization laser fluxes to mass spectral distribution are measured. Using density functional theory calculations, it obtains a planar geometric structure of 1FN dimer which is combined through two hydrogen bonds. The mass spectra indicate that the intensity of 1FN trimer is much weaker than that of 1FN dimer and this feature is attributed to the fact that the dimer may form the first "shell" in geometric structure while the larger clusters are generated based on this fundamental unit.