Double magic: 12 adamantane “nanodiamonds” surround, in an icosahedric arrangement, 21 water molecules that form a pentagon dodecahedral structure.

Electron-induced chemistry in imidazole (IMI) clusters embedded in helium nanodroplets (with an average size of 2×10 5 He atoms) has been investigated with highresoluton time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The formation of both, negative and positive, ions was monitored as a function of the cluster size n. In both ion spectra a clear series of peaks with IMI cluster sizes up to at least 25 are observed. While the anions are formed by collisions of IMI n with He *− , the cations are formed through ionization of IMI n by He + as the measured onset for the cation formation is observed at 24.6 eV (ionization energy of He). The most abundant series of anions are dehydrogenated anions IMI n-1 (IMI−H) − , while other anion series are IMI clusters involving CN and C 2 H 4 moieties. The formation of cations is dominated by the protonated cluster ions IMI n H + , while the intensity of parent cluster cations IMI n + is also observed preferentially for the small cluster size n.The observation of series of cluster cations [IMI n CH 3 ] + suggests either CH 3 + cation to be solvated by n neutral IMI molecules, or the electron-induced chemistry has led to the formation of protonated methyl-imidazole solvated by (n−1) neutral IMI molecules.Keywords: Imidazole, imidazole clusters, helium nanodroplets, electron attachment, electron-induced processesRunning Title: Electron-induced chemistry in imidazole doped HND.

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