Collision induced dissociations of radical cations

The collision induced dissociation spectra of ions generated by ionization or fragmentation of various samples reveal at least five non-decomposing structures. In contrast, the kinetic energy release measurements for the loss of carbon monoxide from the metastable ions are in agreement with the occurrence of a common reactive species. Isomerization into an ‘α,β-unsaturated aldehyde-like’ structure prior to fragmentation is proposed to accommodate these collision induced dissociation and mass analysed ion kinetic energy data. Some resuts suggest also that carbon monoxide loss from the phenol molecular ion may not occur via the cyclohexadienone tautomer.