Tautomerism and electron impact mass spectra of pyrimidin-4(3H)- and -4(1H)-ones

A mass spectrometric identification and differentiation of pyrimidin-4(3H)- and -4(1H)-ones was carried out. N-Substitution at position 1 or 3 made the distinction of the two sets of compounds very easy because of their characteristic fragmentation pathways. Most interesting were the spectra of the N-unsubstituted derivatives, which illustrated a predominance of the two possible NH tautomers in relation to the 4-hydroxy structure.