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Abstract

In this work, we report a joint experimental-theoretical investigation on interaction of vacuum-ultraviolet radiation with trimethylphosphate (TMP) molecule (C₃H₉O₄P) in gas phase. This species together with tetrahydrofuran (THF) are model compounds of deoxyribose nucleic acids (DNA)/ribose nucleic acids (RNA) backbone. Absolute photoabsorption cross sections (σ_a) and ionization yields (η) are measured using the double-ion-chamber technique in the 11.0–21.45 eV energy range. Photoionization (σ_i) and neutral-decay (σ_n) cross sections in absolute scale are also derived. Moreover, theoretical photoabsorption cross sections are calculated using the time-dependent density functional theory from the excitation threshold up to 16 eV. Good agreement between the present calculated and experimental photoabsorption cross sections in the 11.0–14.5 eV range is encouraging. Also, the present measured data of σa and σi for TMP are about 1.3 and 1.5 times of those of THF, respectively. Thus, the experimental evidences that the majority of strand breaks being located at sugar rings in the irradiated DNA/RNA backbone moiety may be induced by a possible migration of the hole, initially created at phosphate group, to the linked sugar groups. Finally, absolute partial photoionization cross sections are derived from the experimental time-of-flight mass spectra.