Evaporation of C4 (C4+) from C60z+

Detailed analysis (kinetic energy release determination) and comparison with similar decay reactions (e.g., C60z+ → C58(z − 1)+ + C2+ have led to the conclusion that the metastable decay of multiply charged ions C60z+ → C56(z − 1)+ (with z = 4, 5 and 6) proceeds via a reaction sequence initiated by the statistical evaporation of a C4 unit followed by a charge transfer reaction between the emitted C4 and the remaining highly charged fullerene ion.