Field-evaporation mass spectroscopy applied to crown ether complexes with alkali and alkaline-earth metals

Field evaporation from solution has been used to detect crown-ether 15K5 and 18K6 coordination compounds formed with Na⁺, K⁺, Cs⁺, Ba²⁺ and Ca²⁺ in aqueous solution, both hydrated and unhydrated; the Ca²⁺·18K6·(H₂O)_n (n=0, 1, 2,...) compounds have been observed before. 18K6 present in the solution greatly increases the yields of 18K6 compounds with the dissociation products from Ba(NO₃)₂. The detection limits for 15K5 and 18K6 combined with Na⁺, K⁺, and Cs⁺ are approximately the same at 10^–7 g.Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Éksperimental'naya Khimiya, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 239–242, March–April 1988.