Complexation of diazaperylene and bisisoquinoline with transition metal ions in the gas phase studied by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

The complex formation of the ligands 1,12-diazaperylene (dap), 1,1'-bisisoquinoline (bis), 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) and 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) with transition metal ions (M = Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ru, Os, Re, Pd, Pt, Ag and Cd) in the gas phase has been studied by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. With the exception of Ru, Os, Fe, Ni and Cu, singly charged complexes MLn](+) (n = 1,2) were observed. The complexes of dap and bis with Ru, Os, Fe and Ni ions, and the mixed ligand complexes with bpy and phen, are preferably of the doubly charged type ML3]2+. In addition, collision-induced dissociation (CID) measurements were employed to evaluate the relative stabilities of these complexes. The CID experiments of mixed-ligand complexes which contain both dap and phen or dap and bpy exhibit preferential elimination of bpy, indicating that bpy is a weaker ligand than phen and dap.