Collisions of low-energy electrons with formamide

We present integral and momentum transfer cross sections for elastic scattering of low-energy electrons by formamide (HCONH2) from 1 to 12 eV. To calculate the cross sections we employed the Schwinger multichannel method with pseudopotentials in the static-exchange and in the static-exchange-polarization approximations. We found a π* shape resonance belonging to the A'' symmetry which is located at around 4.5 eV in the static-exchange approximation, and at around 2.5 eV in the static-exchange-polarization approximation. This result is in close agreement with the observations of Seydou et al. [Eur. Phys. J. D 35, 199 (2005)] which reported the value of 2.05 eV to the vertical electron attachment energy, and is lower than the value of 3.77 eV computed by Goumans et al. [J. Chem. Theory Comp. 5, 217 (2009)]. We carried out additional minimal basis set electronic structure calculations to help in the interpretation of our results. Our results support the conclusions of Goumans et al., namely, that this resonance may initiate the indirect dissociation mechanism of formamide by electron impact.