Mobilities and Reactions of Ions in Argon

Abstract

The development of an ion-drift cell using mass analysis has enabled the measurement of mobility and identification of six ions in argon. Reduced mobilities of 1.40, 1.95, and 2.40 have been obtained for ${\mathrm{Ar}}^{+}$, ${\mathrm{Ar}}_{2}^{+}$, and ${\mathrm{Ar}}^{++}$ in the pure gas, allowing positive identification of ions observed in early experiments by Hornbeck, Biondi, and Beaty. Also, mobilities are obtained for ${\mathrm{H}}_{3}^{+}$, Ar${\mathrm{H}}^{+}$, and ${\mathrm{Kr}}^{+}$ formed in mixtures of argon with hydrogen and krypton. To determine mobilities in argon, three separate experiments using (1) a conventional parallel-plate ion-drift tube, (2) a modified pulsed Townsend discharge with mass analysis, and (3) a gated Tyndall technique with mass analysis were performed to permit comparison with previous experiments.