The molecular-negative ions of acetonitrile are formed by ionizing collision with long-lived highly excited atoms. It was observed that the intensity of the CD
3CN
- ions increases with second order of a CD
3CN gas pressure at a relatively low pressure, with an increase of CD
3CN gas pressure it disappears with third order of the pressure. Assuming the simple bimolecular reaction between CD
3CN
- and acetonitrile molecule for the disappearance reaction of CD
3CN
-, the rate constant was determined to be 6.7 × 10
-9 cm
3/molecule·s. The excitation cross section for the formation of long-lived highly excited atoms from acetonitrile molecule by electron impact was estimated to be 4 × 10
-21 cm
2 at 100 eV electron energy. In binary mixture of acetonitril-hydrogen, it is also observed that CD
3CN
- ions were formed by ionizing collision with long-lived highly excited states of hydrogen molecule.
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