Reactivity and Reaction Pathway Study using Mass Spectrometry

Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry is based on pulse-delay sequences technique which allows both the trapping of the ions as well as a simple variation of the time required to carry out a particular experiment. In this study, typically ion molecule gas phase reaction chemistry, the focus was mainly to vary the time allowed for the reaction of selected ions with a particular ligand, BusSH. The observation of the normalized intensities of the ions in reference to the reaction time allowed provides the key parameters for the determination of the reaction pathways of the various ions (mechanism). In addition, the time required for the reaction to start and the complete disappearance of the reactant ions are indicative of their reactivities. Despite the mono metal-ligand ions and the bis metal-ligand ions that exist in the product of the reactions of all metals covered in this study, a number of metal- ligand fragment ions were also observed for particular metals. In addition, the use of very small time intervals has introduced new steps in the mechanism normally adopted in metal-ligand gas phase chemistry.