In situ generation of HCN for mass spectrometric studies

Hydrogen cyanide (HCN) for use in ion preparation can be generated in the gas phase by the neutral-neutral reaction of trimethylsilyl cyanide (Me(3)SiCN) and water in a flowing afterglow mass spectrometer. We demonstrate that the approach can be used to generate a wide range of HCN solvated ions such as F(-)(HCN), Cl(-)(HCN), CN(-)(HCN), PhNO(2)(.-)(HCN), Me(3)SiO(-)(HCN),and PhSiF(4)(-)(HCN), many of which are otherwise difficult to generate. The bond dissociation energy of CN(-)(HCN), generated by using this approach, has been measured by using energy-resolved collision-induced issociation (CID) to be 0.87 +/- 0.07 eV.