Dissociative recombination of CH4(+).

CH4+ is an important molecular ion in the astrochemistry of diffuse clouds, dense clouds, cometary comae, and planetary ionospheres However, the rate of one of the common destruction mechanisms for molecular ions in these regions, dissociative recombination (DR), is somewhat uncertain. Here, we present absolute measurements for the DR of CH4+ made using the heavy ion storage ring CRYRING hi Stockholm, Sweden. From our collision energy dependent cross sections, we infer a thermal rate constant of k(T-e) = 1.71(+/- 0.02) X 10(-6)(T-e/300)(-0.66(+/- 0.02)) cm(3) s(-1) over the region of electron temperatures 10 <= T-e <= 1000 K. At low collision energies, we have measured the branching fractions of the DR products to be CH4 (0.00 +/- 0.00); CH3 + H (0.18 +/- 0.03); CH2 + 2H (0.51 +/- 0.03); CH2 + H-2 (0.06 +/- 0.01); CH + H-2 + H (0.23 +/- 0.01); and CH + 2H(2) (0.02 +/- 0.01), indicating that two or more C-H bonds are broken in similar to 80% of all collisions.