A revised mechanism for the structure-specific gas phase enol cation-cyclobutanol reaction

Ion cyclotron resonance studies using deuterium labelled substrates have revealed a more complex mechanism than previously proposed for the structure-specific ion/molecule reaction of the C₂H₄O]^+˙ and C₃H₆O]^+˙ enol ions with neutral cyclobutanol. This requires the intermediacy of a species in which all of the methylene groups present in both the reactant ion and neutral can become equivalent.