Medium‐sized phosphorus cluster cations P+2m+1 (6 ≤ m ≤ 32) studied by collision‐induced dissociation mass spectrometry

Medium‐sized phosphorus cluster cations were generated by laser ablation of red phosphorus and investigated by the method of collision‐induced dissociation mass spectrometry. Experimental results show that the primary dissociation channels of phosphorus cluster cations of P ⁺ _2m+1 (6 ≤ m ≤ 11) are all characterized by the loss of P₄ unit. For larger cluster cations, their dissociation pathways were more complex. For those magic cations of P ⁺ _8k+1 observed previously, their dissociation pathways progressively change from the loss of P₄ unit (for k = 3) to the loss of P₈ unit (for k = 4, 5). A new dissociation pathway characterized by the loss of P₁₀ unit was also indentified for larger cations of P ⁺ _8k+1 (6 ≤ k ≤ 8). Theoretical calculation also shows that, for cations of P ⁺ _2m+1 (4 ≤ m ≤ 10), the dissociation channel characterized by the loss of P₄ unit is more energetically favorable than other dissociation channels, which is in good agreement with the experimental results. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.