Methyl vinyl ketone (C$_4$H$_6$O) is a volatile, labile organic compound of importance in atmospheric chemistry. We prepared a molecular beam of methyl vinyl ketone with a rotational temperature of 1.2(2)~K and demonstrated the spatial separation of the \emph{ s-cis} and \emph{ s-trans} conformers of methyl vinyl ketone using the electrostatic deflector. The resulting sample density was $1.5(2)\times10^{ 8}~\text{ cm}^{ -3}$ for the direct beam in the laser ionization region. These conformer-selected methyl vinyl ketone samples are well suited for conformer-specific chemical reactivity studies such as in Diels-Alder cycloaddition reactions.
Categories: physics.chem-ph physics.atm-clus