Excitation of vibrational quanta in furfural by intermediate-energy electrons

Abstract

8 págs.; 4 figs.; 4 tabs. ; We report cross sections for electron-impact excitation of vibrational quanta in furfural, at intermediate incident electron energies (20, 30, and 40 eV). The present differential cross sections are measured over the scattered electron angular range 10°-90°, with corresponding integral cross sections subsequently being determined. Furfural is a viable plant-derived alternative to petrochemicals, being produced via low-temperature plasma treatment of biomass. Current yields, however, need to be significantly improved, possibly through modelling, with the present cross sections being an important component of such simulations. To the best of our knowledge, there are no other cross sections for vibrational excitation of furfural available in the literature, so the present data are valuable for this important molecule. C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC ; This work was supported by the Australian, Brazilian, and Spanish government funding agencies (ARC, CNPq, CAPES). D.B.J. thanks the ARC for a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. R.F.C.N. acknowledges CNPq and Flinders University for financial asistance, while M.J.B. thanks CNPq for his "Special Visiting Professor" award. R.F.C., M.T.N.V., and M.A.P.L. acknowledge financial support from FAPESP, while R.F.C., M.T.N.V., M.H.F.B., M.C.A.L., and M.A.P.L. acknowledge financial support from CNPq. M.C.A.L. also acknowledges support from FAPEMIG. G.G. thanks the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad under Project No. FIS2012-31230 and the European Union COST Action CM1301 for funding. ; Peer Reviewed