Hydrogen migrations in mass spectrometry. VI—the chemical ionization mass spectra of substituted benzoic acids and benzyl alcohols

The H₂ and CH₄ chemical ionization mass spectra of a series of series of substituted benzoic acids and substituted benzyl alcohols have been determined. For the benzoic acids the major fragmentation reactions of the protonated molecule involve elimination of H₂O or elimination of CO₂, the latter reaction involving migration of the carboxylic hydrogen to the aromatic ring. For the benzyl alcohols the major fragmentation reactions of [MH]⁺ involve loss of H₂O or CH₂O, analogous to the CO₂ elimination reaction for the benzoic acids. It is shown that the CO₂ and CH₂O elimination reactions occur only when a conjugated aromatic ring system is present, and that for the carboxylic acid systems, methyl groups and, to a lesser extent, phenyl groups are capable of migrating. The only discernible effect of substituents on the fragmentation of [MH]⁺ is an enhancement of the H₂O loss reaction in the benzoic acid system when an amino, hydroxyl, or halogen substituent is ortho to the carboxyl function. This ‘ortho’ effect, which differs in scope from that observed in electron impact mass spectra, is attributed to an intramolecular catalysis by the ortho substituent of the 1,3 hydrogen migration in the carbonyl protonated acid followed by H₂O elimination. Apparently, this route is favoured over the direct elimination of H₂O from the carbonyl protonated acid, since the latter has a high activation energy barrier because of unfavourable orbital symmetry restrictions.