Beckmann rearrangement in benzophenone oxime,a mass spectrometric study

The isomerization of benzophenone oxime to benzanilide, previously observed to take place in the ion source of a mass spectrometer and attributed to a Beckmann type rearrangement of the benzophenone oxime molecule ion, has been shown to occur by a thermal mechanism prior to ionization. Mass spectrometric evidence is supplemented by infrared spectrophotometric examination of solid samples and shows that in the solid state, at room temperature, benzophenone oxime has a lifetime of about 600 h.