The Thermochemistry of Protonated and Sodiated Clusters Investigated via High-Pressure Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

High-pressure mass spectrometry has been employed to investigate hydrogen and sodium bound ion-molecule complexes in the gas phase. Insight into the structure and reactivity of ion-molecule complexes has been gained by examining simple mono-ketones of butanone and 2-pentanone and more complex β-diketones of 2,4-pentanedione, 1,1,1-trifluoro-2,4-pentanedione and 1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoro-2,4-pentanedione. The effect of fluorinating 2,4-pentanedione exhibits experimental trends that are not representative of current electronic structure calculations . A novel method of sodium ion production has been developed using sodium metal, allowing for equilibrium measurements below 150 °C. Sodium containing ion-molecule complexes have been investigated using the new method of sodium ion production.