Experimental observation of guanine tautomers with VUV photoionization

Two methods of preparing guanine in the gas phase, thermal vaporization and laser desorption, have been investigated. The guanine generated by each method is entrained in a molecular beam, single-photon ionized with tunable VUV synchrotron radiation, and analyzed using reflectron mass spectrometry. The recorded photoionization efficiency (PIE) curves show a dramatic difference for experiments performed via thermal vaporization compared to that with laser desorption. The calculated vertical and adiabatic ionization energies for the eight lowest-lying tautomers of guanine suggest that the experimental observations arise from different tautomers being populated in the two different experimental methods.