Neutral counterparts of the C₂H₇O⁺ isomers

Abstract

Abstract The neutral counterparts of the C 2 H 7 O + isomers CH 3 O + (H)CH 3 , CH 3 CH 2 OH 2 + and \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$ {\rm C}_2 \,{\rm H}_4 \,\, \cdot \cdot \cdot \mathop {\rm H}\limits^ + \, \cdot \cdot \cdot {\rm OH}_2 $\end{document} were studied by neutralization‐reionization mass spectrometry. Protonated dimethyl ether and its —O(D) + analogue were produced by protonation (deuteration) of dimethyl ether and also generated as a fragment ion from (labeled) ionized CH 3 OCH 2 CH(OH)CH 3 by loss of CH 3 CO⋅. It was observed that the dissociation characteristics of the ions and the stability of their neutral counterpart depended on the internal energy of the protonated ether ions. Stable neutral CH 3 Ȯ(H)CH 3 was only produced from energy‐rich ions. The classical protonated ethanol ion CH 3 CH 2 OH 2 + ( a ) was produced at threshold by the loss of CH 3 CO⋅. from ionized butane‐2,3‐diol. Mixtures of a with the non‐classical ion \documentclass{article}\pagestyle{empty}\begin{document}$ {\rm C}_2 \,{\rm H}_4 \,\, \cdot \cdot \cdot \mathop {\rm H}\limits^ + \, \cdot \cdot \cdot {\rm OH}_2 $\end{document} ( b ) were produced by reaction of C 2 H 5 + ions with H 2 O. As for the protonated ether, only high‐energy a and/or b ions yielded stable hypervalent radicals. It is suggested that the stable C 2 H 7 ⋅O radicals are Rydberg states.