Reactions of carbon cluster ions stored in an RF trap

Reactions of carbon clusterions with O₂ were studied by using an RF ion trap in which cluster ions of specific size produced by laser ablation could be stored selectively. Reaction rate constants for positive and negative carbon cluster ions were estimated. In the case of the positive cluster ions, these were consistent with the previous experimental results using FTMS. Negative carbon cluster ions C _n ^– (n=4–8) were much less reactive than positive cluster ions. The C_nO^– products were seen only in n=4 and 6.