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.     

Collisional studies of some C3H7O+ ions

Journal of The American Society for Mass Spectrometry - The C3H7O+ ions of nominal structures 1, 2, 3, and 4, produced by protonation of acetone, propanal, propylene oxide, and oxetan,...     

Internal energy effects on metastable characteristics. The structure of [C3H7O]+ ions

The effect of changes in the internal energy distribution of the fragmenting ion on the ratio of metastable ion intensities for two competing fragmentation reactions has been investigated both theoretically and experimentally. Model calculations have shown that if the competing reactions have significantly different activation energies the metastable intensity ratio does depend on the internal energy distribution although large changes are necessary before the ratio changes by more than a factor of two. Experimentally the metastable characteristics of [C₃H₇O]⁺ ions of nominal structures [CH₃CH₂O⁺?CH₂] (I), [(CH₃)₂C?O⁺H] (II), [CH₃CH₂CH?O⁺H] (III) and [CH₃O⁺?CHCH₃] (IV) have been examined. For each structure the metastable characteristics are found to be distinctive and independent of changes in the internal energy distribution of the fragmenting ion where these changes result from altering the precursor of the [C₃H₇O]⁺ ions. It is suggested that these internal energy changes can be estimated from the fraction of [C₃H₇O]⁺ ions which fragment in the ion-source. It is concluded that structures I to IV represent stable and distinct ionic structures.     

Structures of [C3H6O]+· ions from propylene oxide and methyl-substituted 1,3-dioxolanes by photodissociation and ion/molecule reactions

Photodissociation experiments and ion/molecule reactions with pyridine and hex-1-ene show that [C₃H₆O]^+· ions from propylene oxide isomerize to the vinyl metbyl ether structure. [C₃H₆O]^+· fragment ions from methyl-substituted 1,3-dioxolanes have lower internal energies. In these cases a mixture of photodissociating ring-opened propylene oxide ions and vinyl methyl ether ions is observed.     

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.     

Fragmentation of selected C6H10O isomers: Evidence for a common [C5H7O]+ ion generated by methyl loss from cyclohexene oxide and 5,6-dihydro-4-methyl-2H-pyran

The loss of CH₃˙ from the molecular ions of cyclohexene oxide and 5,6-dihydro-4-methyl-2H-pyran has been investigated. On the basis of metastable peak shape analysis, collision-induced dissociation/mass-analysed ion kinetic energy spectra and thermochemical data it is concluded that the same [C₅H₇O]⁺ ion is formed in both cases.     

Mechanism of CO loss for protonated 1-indanone and isomeric [C9H9O]+ ions

In order to establish the mechanism of CO loss occurring during metastable decomposition of protonated 1-indanone, fragmentations of monocyclic [C₉H₉O]⁺ isomers have been studied. These ions of known structure were prepared by CI protonation and fragmentation of the corresponding acids chlorides. It is demonstrated that the wide component of the [MH? CO]⁺ metastable peak induced by protonated 1-indanone fragmentation is the result of fragmentation of the [C₆H₅CH₂CH₂CO]⁺ isomer ion.     

The structure of decomposing [C7H7O]+ ions: Benzyl versus tropylium ion structures

The unimolecular dissociation reactions for [C₇H₇O]⁺ ions generated by fragmentation of a series of precursor molecules have been investigated. The metastable kinetic energy values and branching ratios associated with decarbonylation and expulsion of a molecule of formaldehyde (CH₂O) from the [C₇H₇O]⁺ ions are interpreted as the hydroxybenzyl and hydroxytropylium [C₇H₇O]⁺ not interconverting to a common structure on the microsecond time-scale. In addition, similar measurements on protonated benzaldehyde, methylaryloxy and phenyl methylene ether [C₇H₇O]⁺ ions are interpreted as the dominant fraction of these decomposing ions having unique structures on the microsecond time-scale. These results are supported by experimental heats of formation calculated from ionization/appearance energy measurements. The experimental heats of formation are determined as: hydroxybenzyl ions, 735 kJ mol^?1; hydroxytropylium ions, 656 kJ mol^?1; phenyl methylene ether ions, 640 kJ mol^?1; methylaryloxy ions 803 kJ mol^?1. The combination of the results reported in this paper with previously reported experimental data for stable [C₇H₇O]⁺ ions (see Ref. 1, C. J. Cassady, B. S. Freiser and D. H. Russell, Org. Mass Spectrom.) is interpreted as evidence that the relative population of benzyl versus tropylium [C₇H₇O]⁺ ion structures from a given precursor molecule is determined by isomerization of the parent ion and not by structural equilibration of the [C₇H₇O]⁺ ion.     

The decompositions of metastable [C4H8O]+˙ ions and the [C4H8O]+˙ potential surface

Collisionally activated decomposition (CA) spectra of [C₄H₈O]⁺˙ ions and the products of their metastable decompositions are used to refine a previously presented picture of the reactions of [C₄H₈O]⁺˙ ions. Metastable [C₄H₈O]⁺˙ isomers predominantly rearrange to the 2-butanone ion and decompose by loss of methyl and ethyl, although up to 38% of the methyl losses take place by other pathways to form \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$ {\rm{CH}}_{\rm{2}} = {\rm{CHCH = }}\mathop {\rm{O}}\limits^{\rm{ + }} {\rm{H}}{\rm{.}} $\end{document} . The CA spectra of many of the [C₄H₈O]⁺˙ ions with the oxygen on the first carbon are very similar, consistent with those ions isomerizing largely to common structures before or after collision. However, several of these ions have unique CA spectra, so they must remain structurally distinct from the majority of the [C₄H₈O]⁺˙ ions below energies required for decomposition. The CA spectra of ions with the oxygen on the second carbon are distinct from those of ions with the oxygen on the first carbon, so there is limited interconversion of the non-decomposing forms of the two types of ions. A potential energy diagram for the reactions of metastable [C₄H₈O]⁺˙ ions is constructed from appearance energy measurements. As would be expected, the relative importances of most of the [C₄H₈O]⁺˙ isomerizations seem to be inversely related to the activation energies for those processes. Some parallels between the isomerizations of [C₄H₈O]⁺˙ ions and those of related ions are pointed out.     

A study of the structures of decomposing and non-decomposing [C4H5N]+˙ ions formed from different neutral species

[C₄H₅N]^+˙ ions have been generated from eleven neutral species. From a study of their metastable transitions and the translational energy released in the fragmentation in which C₂H₂ is lost, it is concluded that [C₄H₅N]^+˙ ions with sufficient energy to decompose do so from a common structure or mixture of structures when they are generated from crotonitrile, allyl cyanide, cyclopropyl cyanide, methacrylontrile, pyrrole, 2-, 3- and 4-hydroxypyridines and 2-aminopyridine. The [C₄H₅N]^+˙ ions formed from allyl isocyanide decompose from a different structure and those given by cyclopropyl isocyanide appear to decompose from a mixture of the two structures. Non-decomposing [C₄H₅N]^+˙ ions were investigated by means of their collision induced decomposition spectra using a B/E linked scan. Six different structures or mixtures of structures are suggested to explain these observations.     

Structures of decomposing and non-decomposing gas-phase [C4H6O]+· radical cations,and their [C2H2O]+· and [C3H6]+· product ions

The structures of gas-phase [C₄H₆O]^+· radical cations and their daughter ions of composition [C₂H₂O]^+· and [C₃H₆]^+· were investigated by using collisionally activated dissociation, metastable ion measurement, kinetic energy release and collisional ionization tandem mass spectrometric techniques. Electron ionization (70 eV) of ethoxyacetylene, methyl vinyl ketone, crotonaldehyde and 1-methoxyallene yields stable [C₄H₆O]^+· ions, whereas the cyclic C₄H₆O compounds undergo ring opening to stable distonic ions. The structures of [C₂H₃O]^+· ions produced by 70-eV ionization of several C₄H₆O compounds are identical with that of the ketene radical cation. The [C₃H₆]^+· ions generated from crotonaldehyde, methacrylaldehyde, and cyclopropanecarboxaldehyde have structures similar to that of the propene radical cations, whereas those ions generated from the remainder of the [C₄H₆O]^+· ions studied here produced a mixed population of cyclopropane and propene radical cations.     

Study of ion structures produced by the reaction of 2-propyl cations with water and methanol; covalently bound v. Hydrogen-bridged adducts

In contrast to an earlier report,¹ the collisonally induced dissociation of protonated 2-propanol and t-butyl alcohol yields spectra that are indistinguishable from those of the corresponding [C₃H₇/H₂O]⁺ and [C₄H₉/H₂O]⁺ ions generated by the (formal) gas phase addition reactions in a high pressure ion source of [s-C₃H₇]⁺ and [t-C₄H₉]⁺ ions with the n-donor H₂O. Similarly, [s-C₃H₇/CH₃OH]⁺ ions generated by both gas phase protonation of n- and s-propyl methyl ethers and addition reactions of [C₃H₇]⁺ to CH₃OH display mode-of-generation-independent collisionally induced dissociation characteristics. However, analysis of the unimolecular dissociation (loss of propene) of the [C₃H₇/CH₃OH]⁺ system, including a number of its deuterium, ¹³C- and ¹⁸O-labelled isotopomers, supports the idea that prior to unimolecular dissociation, covalently bound [C₃H₇- O(H)CH₃]⁺ ions intercovert with hydrogen-bridged adduct ions, analogous to the behaviour of the distonic ethene-, propene- and ketene-H₂O radical cations.     

The heats of formation of some protonated olefinic carbonyl compounds: [C5H9O]+ and [C4H7O2]+ ions

The proton transfer equilibrium reactions involving 3-penten-2-one, 3-methyl-3-buten-2-one, crotonic acid and methacrylic acid were carried out in an ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) spectrometer. The semiempirical method MNDO, used to estimate the heats of formation for 14 protonated [C₅H₉O]⁺ and [C₄H₇O₂]⁺ ions and the energetic aspect of the fragmentations of metastable [C₆H₁₂O]^+. and [C₆H₁₂O₂]^+. ions, leads to the conclusion that the ions corresponding to protonation at the carbonyl oxygen are the most stable. Thus the experimentally determined heats of formation of protonated olefinic carbonyl compounds can be attributed to the following structures: [CH₃COHCHCHCH₃]⁺ (δH_f = 490 KJ mol^?1), [CH₃COHC(CH₃)CH₂]⁺ (δH_f = 502 KJ mol^?1), [HOCOHCHCHCH₃]⁺ (δH_f = 330 KJ mol^?1) and [HOCOHC(CH₃)CH₂]⁺ (δH_f = 336 KJ mol^?1).     

Structure and mechanism of fragmentation of [C2H5O]+

The decomposition reactions of [C₂H₅O]⁺ ions produced by dissociative electron-impact ionization of 2-propanol have been studied, using ¹³C and deuterium labeling coupled with metastable intensity studies. In addition, the fragmentation reactions following protonation of appropriately labeled acetaldehydes and ethylene oxides with [H₃]⁺ or [D₃]⁺ have been investigated. In both studies particular attention has been paid to the reactions leading to [CHO]⁺, [C₂H₃]⁺ and [H₃O]⁺. In both the electron-impact-induced reactions and the chemical ionization systems the fragmentation of [C₂H₅O]⁺ to both [H₃O]⁺ and [C₂H₃]⁺ proceeds by a single mechanism. For each case the reaction involves a mechanism in which the hydrogen originally bonded to oxygen is retained in the oxygen containing fragment while the four hydrogens originally bonded to carbon become indistinguishable. The fragmentation of [C₂H₅O]⁺ to produce [CHO]⁺ proceeds by a number of mechanisms. The lowest energy route involves complete retention of the α carbon and hydrogen while a higher energy route proceeds by a mechanism in which the carbons and the attached hydrogens become indistinguishable. A third distinct mechanism, observed in the electron-impact spectra only, proceeds with retention of the hydroxylic hydrogen in the product ion. Detailed fragmentation mechanisms are proposed to explain the results. It is suggested that the [C₂H₅O]⁺ ions formed by protonation of acetaldehyde or ionization of 2-propanol are produced initially with the structure [CH₃CH?\documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$ \mathop {\rm O}\limits^ + $\end{document}H] (a), but isomerize to [CH₂?CH? \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$ \mathop {\rm O}\limits^ + $\end{document}H₂] (e) prior to decomposition to [C₂H₃]⁺ or [H₃O]⁺. The results indicate that the isomerization a → e does not proceed directly, possibly because it is symmetry forbidden, but by two consecutive [1,2] hydrogen shifts. A more general study of the electron-impact mass spectrum of 2-propanol has been made and the fragmentation reactions proceeding from the molecular ion have been identified.     

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.     

Fragmentation of protonated O,O-diethyl O-aryl phosphorothionates in tandem mass spectral analysis

The gas-phase ion chemistry of protonated O,O-diethyl O-aryl phosphorothionates was studied with tandem mass spectrometric and ab initio theoretical methods. Collision-activated dissociation (CAD) experiments were performed for the [M+H]⁺ ions on a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. Various amounts of internal energy were deposited into the ions upon CAD by variation of the collision energy and collision gas pressure. In addition to isobutane, deuterated isobutane C₄D₁₀ also was used as reagent gas in chemical ionization. The daughter ions [M+H?C₂H₄]⁺ and [M+H?2C₂H₄]⁺ dominate the CAD spectra. These fragments arise via various pathways, each of which involves γ-proton migration. Formation of the terminal ions [M+H?2C₂H₄?H₂O]⁺, [M+H?2C₂H₄?H₂S]⁺, [ZPhOH₂]⁺, [ZPhSH₂]⁺, and [ZPhS]⁺ [Z = substituent(s) on the benzene ring] suggests that (1) the fragmenting [M+H]⁺ ions of O,O-diethyl O-aryl phosphorothionates have protons attached on the oxygen of an ethoxy group and on the oxygen of the phenoxy group; (2) thiono-thiolo rearrangement by aryl migration to sulfur occurs; (3) the fragmenting rear-ranged [M+H]⁺ ions have protons attached on the oxygen of an ethoxy group and on the sulfur of the thiophenoxy group. To get additional support for our interpretation of the mass spectrometric results, some characteristics of three protomers of O,O-diethyl O-phenyl phosphorothionate were investigated by carrying out ab initio molecular orbital calculations at the RHF/3–21G* level of theory.     

Theoretical study of propylene epoxidation heterogeneous-homogeneous mechanism over MoOx/SiO2 catalyst

The green direct propylene (C₃H₆) epoxidation on MoO_x is well studied by experimental methods, but detailed molecular reaction mechanism studies using in-silico experiments method are few. Here, the different oxidation heterogeneous-homogeneous pathways for MoO_x/SiO₂ catalyst are calculated, mainly involving Mo=O on di-oxo tetracoordinate MoO_x, allyl peroxy (C₃H₅OO•), and allyloxy (C₃H₅O•) radicals. The results show that, for surface reaction mechanism with Mo=O, the barriers of propylene oxide (PO) and acetone generation are too high; in comparison, the byproduct acrolein is more beneficial product with a lower barrier. In heterogeneous-homogeneous pathways, the desorbed allyl (C₃H₅•) from the surface can easily combine with O₂ to synthesize C₃H₅OO• radical, and in the partial oxidation of propylene with C₃H₅OO• as an oxidant, PO is more beneficial with a low barrier compared to byproducts such as propanal, acetone, acetaldehyde, etc. These indicate that (a) gas-phase free radical reactions have important effects on PO generation, in which C₃H₅OO• is the main active species; (b) on MoO_x surface, Mo=O is difficult to be used as the active O species for PO production. Further research is needed on other active sites such as Mo-O-Mo or defective sites.     

A comparison of the unimolecular decomposition pathways of some C7 and C8 ions in the gas phase

[CnH_2n?3]⁺ and [C_nH_2n?4]⁺·(n = 7, 8) ions have been generated in the mass spectrometer from C_nH_2n?3 Br (n = 7, 8) precursors and from two steroids. The relative abundances of competing ‘metastable transitionss’ indicate (partial) isomerization to a common structure (or mixture of structures) prior to decomposition in most examples of all four types of ions. In contrast, [C₈H₁₀O]⁺· and [C₈H₁₂O]⁺· ions, generated from different sources as molecular ions and by fragmentation of steroids, do not decompose through common-intermediates.     

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.     

Competing ring cleavages in substituted 4-arylcyclohexanols and their methyl ethers under electron impact

Ring cleavage α to the oxygen function leads to [C₃H₅O]⁺ and [C₄H₇O]⁺ ions in the mass spectra of 4-arylcyclohexanols and their methyl ethers, respectively. Cleavage α to the aryl group gives rise to [C₃H₇O]⁺ (from the alcohols), [C₄H₉O]⁺ (from the ethers) and [ArC₃H₄]⁺ (from both) ions. The competition between the two ring cleavages explains the effect of the substituents of the aryl groups on the relative abundances of the resulting ions.