The history and evolution of molecular threshold photoelectron spectroscopy and threshold photoelectron photoion coincidence spectroscopy (TPEPICO) over the last fifty years are reviewed. Emphasis is placed on instrumentation and the extraction of dynamical information about energy selected ion dissociation, not on the detailed spectroscopy of certain molecules. Three important advances have expanded greatly the power of the technique, and permitted its implementation on modern synchrotron radiation beamlines. The use of velocity focusing of threshold electrons onto an imaging detector in the 1990s simultaneously improved the sensitivity and electron energy resolution, and also facilitated the subtraction of hot electron background in both threshold electron spectroscopy and TPEPICO studies. The development of multi-start multi-stop collection detectors for both electrons and ions in the 2000s permitted the use of the full intensity of modern synchrotron radiation thereby greatly improving the signal-to-noise ratio. Finally, recent developments involving imaging electrons in a range of energies as well as ions onto separate position-sensitive detectors has further improved the collection sensitivity so that low density samples found in a variety of studies can be investigated. As a result, photoelectron photoion coincidence spectroscopy is now well positioned to address a range of challenging problems that include the quantitative determination of compositions of isomer mixtures, and the detection and spectroscopy of free radicals produced in pyrolysis or discharge sources as well as in combustion studies.

The dissociative photoionization mechanism of internal energy selected C(2)H(3)F(+), 1,1-C(2)H(2)F(2)(+), C(2)HF(3)(+) and C(2)F(4)(+) cations has been studied in the 13-20 eV photon energy range using imaging photoelectron photoion coincidence spectroscopy. Five predominant channels have been found; HF loss, statistical and non-statistical F loss, cleavage of the C-C bond post H or F-atom migration, and cleavage of the C=C bond. By modelling the breakdown diagrams and ion time-of-flight distributions using statistical theory, experimental 0 K appearance energies, E(0), of the daughter ions have been determined. Both C(2)H(3)F(+) and 1,1-C(2)H(2)F(2)(+) are veritable time bombs with respect to dissociation via HF loss, where slow dissociation over a reverse barrier is followed by an explosion with large kinetic energy release. The first dissociative ionization pathway for C(2)HF(3) and C(2)F(4) involves an atom migration across the C=C bond, giving CF-CHF(2)(+) and CF-CF(3)(+), respectively, which then dissociate to form CHF(2)(+), CF(+) and CF(3)(+). The nature of the F-loss pathway has been found to be bimodal for C(2)H(3)F and 1,1-C(2)H(2)F(2), switching from statistical to non-statistical behaviour as the photon energy increases. The dissociative ionization of C(2)F(4) is found to be comprised of two regimes. At low internal energies, CF(+), CF(3)(+) and CF(2)(+) are formed in statistical processes. At high internal energies, a long-lived excited electronic state is formed, which loses an F atom in a non-statistical process and undergoes statistical redistribution of energy among the nuclear degrees of freedom. This is followed by a subsequent dissociation. In other words only the ground electronic state phase space stays inaccessible. The accurate E(0) of CF(3)(+) and CF(+) formation from C(2)F(4) together with the now well established Δ(f)H(o) of C(2)F(4) yield self-consistent enthalpies of formation for the CF(3), CF, CF(3)(+) and CF(+) species.

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: Using tunable vacuum-UV radiation from a synchrotron in the range 12-26 eV, we have measured the threshold photoelectron and threshold photoelectron -photoion coincidence spectrum of