Eleanor Michi Burrow

The valence electron affinity of uracil determined by anion cluster photoelectron spectroscopy The unoccupied π* orbitals of the nucleobases are considered to play important roles in low-energy electron attachment to DNA, inducing damage. While the lowest anionic state is unbound in all neutral nucleobases, it remains unclear even for the simplest nucleobase, uracil (U), whether its valence anion (U–) is adiabatically bound, which has important implications on the efficacy of damage processes.