Formation and stability of gaseous tolyl ions

Collisional activation mass spectra confirm that tolyl ions can be produced from a variety of CH₃C₆H₄Y compounds. High purity o-, m- and p-tolyl ions are prepared by chemical ionization of the corresponding fluorides (Y=F) as proposed by Harrison. In electron ionization of CH₃C₆H₄Y formation of the more stable tropylium and benzyl ionic isomers usually accompanies that of the o-, m- and p-tolyl ions. Isomerization of low energy [CH₃C₆H₄Y]⁺? to [Y–methylenecyclohexadiene]⁺? is proposed to account for most [benzyl]⁺ formation, while the tropylium ion appears to arise from the isomerization of tolyl ions formed with higher internal energies, [o-, m-, p-tolyl]⁺→ [benzyl]⁺→ [tropylium]⁺, consistent with Dewar's predictions from MINDO/3 calculations.     

The [M?OH]+ ions of m- and p-ethylnitrobenzene: A common structure?

The structures of the [M? OH]⁺ ions of m- and pethylnitrobenzene have been compared by measurements of metastable ion spectra, collisional activation spectra, kinetic energy releases and critical energies for the formation of these ions and their subsequent decomposition. Normalized rates of fragmentation of metastable molecular ions and metastable [M? OH]⁺ ions have been compared for ion lifetimes up to 30 μs. The energy measurements fail to distinguish between the structures of the [M? OH]⁺ ions, but the normalized fragmentation rates and the collisional activation spectra show their structures to be different.     

Mass spectra of halogenated esters 5—Chloromethyl esters of aliphatic C2?C12 n-carboxylic acids and their monochlorinated derivatives

A study has been made of the mass spectral fragmentation upon electron impact of aliphatic C₂? C₁₂ chloromethyl esters and all their 66 monochlorinated derivatives. The fragmentation pathways of the parent chloromethyl esters were elucidated with the aid of the 1st FFR metastable ions. A McLafferty rearrangement gives the base peak in the C₆? C₁₁ parent esters and in almost all the 4-chloro and ω-chloro isomers. The subsequent loss of HCl gives a very characteristic peak of the chloromethyl esters and their (3-ω)-chloro derivatives at m/z 72, [C₃H₄O₂]⁺. The 2-chloro isomers have the corresponding chlorine-containing fragment ion at m/z 106/108. The mass spectra of 2-, 3-, 4-, 5- and ω-chloro isomers give the characteristic fragment ions, the mass spectra of the other isomers being very similar.     

Two competing fragmentation processes in dimethoxybenzenes depending on their positional isomers: Elimination of CH3 and CHnO (n = 1–3) and formation of methoxycyclopentadienyl and protonated phenol ions

All the metastable transitions observed above m/z 39 in the first field-free region were compared for the three positional isomers of dimethoxybenzene. The observed isomer-dependent fragmentation processes, in particular the formation and decomposition of the m/z 95 (C₆H₇O)⁺ ion, are discussed in terms of two competing fragmentations [elimination of CH₃ and CH_nO (n = 1–3) and formation of methoxycyclopentadienyl and protonated phenol ions] and the relative energies of several isomers of the C₆H₇O⁺ ion calculated with molecular orbital theory.     

The dependence of collision induced fragmentation pattern on the internal energy of the precursor ion

A Method is presented whereby product organic ions formed as the result of fragmentation of metastable ions can be selected on the basis of their internal energies. The method requires requires angular collimation of the beam of reactant ions issuing from the ion source and that the fragmentation of the metastable ions is studied in the first field free region of a reversed geometry double focusing mass spectrometer. The product ions that make up the metastable peak are allowed to fall on the intermediate resolving slit and, by adjusting the magnet current over a small range, ions contained in different regions of the peak can be allowed into the second field free region. It is shown that the position of an ion within the metastable peak correlates with its internal energy, ions near the edges of the peak being the least excited. The ions entering the second field free region can be investigated by collisional activation. This has been done for molecular ions of p-chlorophenol, methylbenzoate, benzaldehyde, m-chlorotoluene and n-butane. The in which the collision induced fragmentation pattern varies with internal energy of the ions is illustrated.     

A reinvestigation of the collisional activation mass spectra of [C7H7]+ ion mixtures

The collisional activation (CA) mass spectra of the two isomeric [C₇H₇]⁺ ions, benzyl and tropyl, have been reassessed. The structure-characteristic feature of their CA mass spectra, the m/z 77:74 abundance ratio, has been confirmed as 3.15 ± 0.2 for benzyl cations and lowered to 035 ± 03 for tropyl ions. Benzyl–tropyl cation mixture analyses were made and were in general agreement with earlier CA results, but still disagree with the results of ion cyclotron resonance experiments. The behavior of toluene molecular ions close to their dissociation threshold to [C₇H₇]⁺ + H˙ was examined; for metastable [C₇H₈]⁺˙ ions an approximately 55:45 benzyl:tropyl ratio was found. Observations are discussed in relation to photoionization and photoelecrron-photoionization coincidence studies, both of which predict high tropyl ion contents at low energies. However, at the lowest energies attainable in this study the benzyl content failed to fall below 50% and it is concluded that toluene molecular ions do not generate tropyl cations at their dissociation limit.     

Fragmentation of 1- and 3-methoxypropene ions another part of the C4H8O+• potential energy surface

The fragmentation mechanisms of metastable ionized 1? and 3?methoxypropene have been examined in detail by using ionization and appearance energy measurements, metastable ion and collisional activation mass spectra, and a variety of isotopically labeled molecules. These metastable C₄H₈O^+? ions fragment by loss of H; CH₃, and H₂CO, and the experimental observations allowed the construction of the potential energy diagram which describes their interconversion and the participation of four other distonic and carbene C₄H₈O^+? ions. It was found that these two methyl alkenyl ether ions had no common reaction channel with either the 2?methoxy isomer or with any of the alcohol, keto, or enol C₄H₈O^n+? isomers which previously have been extensively studied.     

Metastable ion studies. XII—Molecular and fragment ion structures for isomeric C4H6O2 acids

Metastable peak characteristics, ionization and appearance energy data and isotopic labelling experiments have been applied to a study of the fragmentation behaviour of the molecular ions of the isomeric C₄H₆O₂C acids, cis and trans-crotonic acids, methacrylic acid, butenoic acid and cyclopropane carboxylic acid. Prior to the losses of H₂O and CH₃, all the metastable molecular ions rearrange to [cis-crotonic acid]⁺? ions. Loss of H₂O, which generates a composite metastable peak, is proposed to yield vinylketene and/or cyclobutenone molecular ions. Detailed mechanisms are presented for the isomerizations of the various molecular ions and for the above fragmentations. Ionized 3-butenoic and cyclopropane carboxylic acids display a major loss of CO from their metastable ions, a minor process in the other isomers. The metastable peaks consist of two components and these are ascribed to the formation of propen-1-ol and allyl alcohol as daughter ions. Some comparative data are presented for the isomeric C₅H₈O₂ acids, tiglic acid, angelic acid and senecioic acid.     

Metastable ion studies. IV—thermochemistry and ion structures among fragmenting [C3H6]+· ions

Metastable ion peak shapes, dimensions and relative abundances have been measured for the three fragmentations [C₃H₆]⁺· → [C₃H₄]⁺· + H₂, [C₃H₆]⁺· → [C₃H₅]⁺ + H· and [C₃H₆]⁺· → [C₃H₃]⁺ + H₂ + H·. [C₃H₆]⁺· ions were derived from propene, cyclopropane, tetrahydrofuran, cyclohexanone, 2-methyl but-1-ene and cis-pent-2-ene. Activation energies for these fragmentations have been evaluated. Three daughter ion dissociations ([C₃H₅]⁺ → [C₃H₃]⁺ + H₂, [C₃H₅]⁺ → [C₃H₄]⁺· + H· and [C₃H₄]⁺· → [C₃H₃]⁺ + H·) have been similarly examined. Ion structures have been determined and the metastable energy releases have been correlated with the thermochemical data. It is concluded that the molecular ions of propene and cyclopropane become structurally indistinguishable prior to fragmentation and that differences in their metastable ion characteristics can be ascribed wholly to internal energy differences; the latter can be correlated with the photoelectron spectra of the isomers. The pathway for the consecutive fragmentation which generates the metastable ion peak (m/e 42 → m/e.39) has been shown to be It is likewise concluded that fragmentating [C₃H₆]⁺· ions generated from the various precursor molecules are also structurally indistinguishable and cannot be classified with either molecular ion of the isomeric C₃H₆ hydrocarbons.     

Isomerization and fragmentation of methylfuran ions and pyran ions in the gas phase

The mutual interconversion of the molecular ions [C₅H₆O]⁺ of 2-methylfuran (1), 3-methylfuran (2) and 4H-pyran (3) before fragmentation to [C₅H₅O]⁺ ions has been studied by collisional activation spectrometry, by deuterium labelling, by the kinetic energy release during the fragmentation, by appearance energles and by a MNDO calculation of the minimum energy reaction path. The electron impact and collisional activation mass spectra show clearly that the molecular ions of 1–3 do not equilibrate prior to fragmentation, but that mostly pyrylium ions [C₅H₅O]⁺ arise by the loss of a H atom. This implies an irreversible isomerization of methylfuran ions 1 and 2 into pyran ions before fragmentation, in contrast to the isomerization of the related systems toluene ions/cycloheptatriene ions. Complete H/D scrambling is observed in deuterated methylfuran ions prior to the H/D loss that is associated with an iostope effect k_H/k_D = 1.67–2.16 for metastable ions. In contrast, no H/D scrambling has been observed in deuterated 4H-pyran ions. However, the loss of a H atom from all metastable [C₅H₅O]⁺ ions gives rise to a flat-topped peak in the mass-analysed ion kinetic energy spectrum and a kinetic energy release (T₅₀) of 26 ± 1.5 kJ mol^?1. The MNDO calculation of the minimum energy reaction path reveals that methylfuran ions 1 and 2 favour a rearrangement into pyran ions before fragmentation into furfuryl ions, but that the energy barrier of the first rearrangement step is at least of the same height as the barrier for the dissociation of pyran ions into pyrylium ions. This agrees with the experimental results.     

Mass spectrometric studies of structural isomers—II: Mono-and bicyclic C6H10 molecules

The electron-impact-induced ionization and fragmentation of six C₆H₁₀ structural isomers have been studied in order to determine the effect of isomerism upon their mass spectrometric behavior. The 70 eV mass spectra, metastable transitions and appearance potentials of the principal ions are reported. Significant differences between the mass spectra of the six isomers were observed; however, metastable transition and appearance potential data indicate that the fragmentation path-ways are the same for all the C₆H₁₀ molecules. Experimentally determined ionization potentials for the structural isomers are presented and compared to ionization potentials calculated by the bond orbital method. Utilizing fragmentation pathways deduced from general features in the mass spectra and from observed metastable transitions, we calculated heats of formation (ΔH_f) for the observed principal ions and compared these values to ΔH_f values for isomeric ions from other molecules.     

Metastable ions in chemical ionization

The ion [C₃H₅]⁺ generated in a chemical ionization source by a variety of methods, including protonation and charge exchange, exhibits a metastable peak for H₂ loss which is two orders of magnitude weaker than that formed in an electron impact source. The stable [C₃H₅]⁺ ions generated by electron impact and chemical ionization undergo collision-induced dissociation to a comparable extent, both losing H₂ by only one of the two competitive mechanisms observed for metastable ions. In contrast to the behavior of [C₃H₅]⁺, the molecular ions of p-substituted nitrobenzene, generated by charge exchange at high source pressure, yield composite metastable peaks for NO loss which are very similar in shape and intensity to those generated by electron impact. The contrasting behavior of the metastable ions extracted from high pressure ion sources in the two systems may be due to differences in the efficiencies of quenching of the ionic states responsible for fragmentation as metastable ions. It is noteworthy that the NO loss reactions require considerably lower activation energies than does the H₂ loss reaction.     

The doubly-charged ion mass spectra of hydrocarbons

The doubly-charged ion mass spectra of some hydrocarbons, including a variety of structural types, have been obtained by a new technique in which doubly-charged ions are charge exchanged with neutral molecules and so separated from singly-charged ions. The spectra show strong similarities, independent of hydrocarbon structure; characteristic ions include [C_mH₂]⁺⁺ (m = 2 to 5), [C_nH₆]⁺⁺(n > 6), [C₁₀H₈]⁺⁺, [C₁₂H₈]⁺⁺, [C₁₁H₁₀]⁺⁺, [C₇H₇]⁺⁺·, [C₉H₇]⁺⁺· and [C₁₃H₁₁]⁺⁺·. The fragmentation pattern of 2-phenylnaphthalene has been reconstructed, based on observed reactions of metastable doubly-charged ions to give fragment doubly-charged ions. In addition, we examined metastable ion fragmentations leading to two singly-charged ions for some of the characteristic ions, using several compounds. The value of doubly-charged ion mass spectra of hydrocarbons appears to lie in the information they provide on ion structures; this information was sufficient to permit the proposal of structures for the major ions encountered in this study.     

The structures of [C5H5O]+ ions formed from isomers of nitrophenol in the gaseous phase

Translational energy release measurments on metastable ions are used in the comparison of the structures of isomeric ions. Metastable ions, m₂⁺, formed from m₁⁺ ions as the result of a high energy process in the ion source are compared with isomeric metastable ions formed as daughters from fragmentation of metastable m₁⁺ ions in a field. In the case of o-, m- and p-nitrophenol the structure of the [C₅H₅O]⁺ ions formed from [C₆H₅O]⁺ ions by these two independent methods is different as verified by comparison of the behaviour of [C₅H₅O]⁺ ions formed from several other compounds.     

Ion structural studies by ion kinetic energy spectrometry: [C7H7]+, [C7H8]+˙, [C7H7OCH3]+˙

The use of kinetic energy release measurements in the structural characterization of ions formed in the mass spectrometer and in the determination of fragmentation mechanisms is demonstrated. In combination with information on the mode of energy partitioning in some of these reactions this allows the following conclusions: (i) The metastable [C₇H₈]⁸˙ ions formed from toluene, cyclohepatatriene, n-butylbenzene, the three methyl anisoles, methyl tropyl ether and benzyl methyl ether all undergo loss of H˙ from a common structure. (ii) The metastable [C₇H₇]⁺ ions generated from the same sources and from benzyl bromide, benzyl alcohol, p-xylene and ethylbenzene appear to undergo loss of acetylene from both the benzylic and the tropylium structures. (iii) The metastable [C₇H₇OCH₃]⁺˙ ether molecular ions undergo loss of CH₃˙ by two types of mechanism, simple cleavage to give the aryloxy cation (not observed for benzyl methyl ether) and a rearrangement process which appears to lead to protonated tropone as the product. (iv) Loss of formaldehyde from the metastable [C₇H₇OCH₃]⁺˙ molecular ions involves hydrogen transfer via competitive 4- and 5-membered cyclic transition states in the case of the anisoles and in the case of methyl tropyl ether, while for benzyl methyl ether, hydrogen transfer in the nonisomerized molecular ion occurs via a 4-membered cyclic transition state to yield the cycloheptatriene molecular ion.     

The mass spectra of alkyl- and phenyl-4-imidazolin-2-ones

The mass spectra of a variety of alkyl- and aryl-4-imidazolin-2-ones have been determined and the fragmentation mechanisms have been analyzed by deuterium labelling, high resolution and metastable transitions allowing certain differentiations of positional isomers. In contrast to the benzoid systems the mass spectra of isomeric alkyl-4-imidazolin-2-ones are distinctive. The influence of the position of substituents is demonstrated by phenyl-4-imidazolin-2-ones establishing an exact prediction of fragmentation pathways. Fragment ions (e.g. [M-HNCO].⁺) which are the result of rearrangement processes were excluded for structure determinations. The ion structures involved were elucidated by collisional activation comparing model ions. Alkyl-phenyl-4-imidazolin-2-ones give almost identical mass spectra, but the positional isomers can easily be distinguished by different fragmentation patterns in both metastable and collisional activation spectra of the molecular ions.     

Chemical ionization mass spectra of selected C3H6O compounds

The chemical ionization mass spectra of five isomers of C₃H₆O (acetone, propionaldehyde, oxetane, propylene oxide and allyl alcohol) have been determined using a variety of reagent gases (H₂, D₂, N₂/H₂, CO₂/H₂ and CO/H₂). The [C₃H₇O]⁺ ions produced by protonation of these isomers undergo very similar reactions to those reported for analogous [C₃H₇O]⁺ metastable ions; however, decomposing ions generated by chemical ionization appear to have somewhat higher internal energies. The results of ²H labelling studies (D₂ reagent gas or labelled analogues of C₃H₆O) indicate that protonation occurs mainly on oxygen and are consistent with previous investigations of metastable oxonium ions. The protonated acetone ion is particularly stable, in agreement with the higher activation energies for fragmentation of this isomer than for other [C₃H₇O]⁺ structures. As the calculated heat of protonation of C₃H₆O is reduced by changing the reagent gas, so the extent to which fragmentation occurs decreases. This is discussed in the context of competition between fragmentation and collisional stabilization of the excited [C₃H₇O]⁺* ion. It is concluded that on average a large fraction (approaching 1) of the exothermicity of the protonation reaction resides in the [C₃H₇O]⁺* ions produced initially.     

Loss of hydroxyl radical from isomeric ethylnitrobenzenes

The loss of a hydroxyl radical from the molecular ions of o-, m- and p-ethylnitrobenzene has been studied by metastable ion and collisional activation techniques using electron impact and field ionization. It is shown that for the ortho isomer the mechanism of this reaction is unique, and is totally different from that of the meta and para isomers. The critical energies are also reported, and deuterium labelling is employed to access the role of the α-hydrogens in hydroxyl loss.     

Fragmentation of the enolate ion of 2,3-butanedione. Characterization of the acetyl anion by charge inversion mass spectrometry

The unimolecular and collision-induced fragmentation reactions of the enolate ion of 2,3-butanedione, [CH₃COCOCH₂]^?, have been studied, Unimolecular fragmentation on the metastable ion time-scale forms [HCCO]^?, [C₂H₃O]^?, [C₃H₅O]^? and [CH₃CO₂]^?. Charge inversion mass spectrometry shows that the [C₂H₃O]^? ion is the acetyl anion while the [C₃H₅O]^? product is the acetone enolate ion; formation of the latter product involves a large release of kinetic energy (T _1/2 = 0.99 eV). The fragmentation reactions occurring following collisional activation have been determined for 8 keV collisions and over the range 1.5–30 eV center-of-mass collision energy. Formation of [HCCO]^? and [CH₃CO]^? are of the most important reactions following collisional activation and it is concluded that the two reactions have similar critical reaction energies even though formation of [HCCO]^? is favored thermochemically.     

Structure and fragmentation of [C6H13O]+ ions formed by chemical ionization

The structure and fragmentation of eight [C₆H₁₃O] ⁺ ions formed by protonation of C₆H₁₂O carbonyl compounds in the gas phase have been investigated using isotopic labeling and metastable ion studies to investigate the fragmentation reactions and collisional dissociation studies to probe ion structures. Protonated 3-methyl-2-pentanone and protonated 2-methyl-3-pentanone readily-interconvert by pinacolic-retro-pinacolic rearrangements; the remaining six ions represent stable ion structures, although in many cases fragmentation is preceded by pinacolic-type rearrangements. Unimolecular (metastable ion) fragmentation of the [C₆H₁₃O] ⁺ species occurs by elimination of H₂O, C₃H₆, C₄H₈ and C₂H₄O. The last three elimination reactions appear to occur through the intermediacy of a proton-bound complex of a carbonyl compound and an olefin, with the proton residing with the species of higher proton affinity on decomposition of the complex.