Excess energies in mass spectra of some oxygen-containing organic compounds

Abstract

Excess energies of the electron-impact induced dissociation of several oxygen-containing compounds have been estimated by measuring the translational energies of the fragment ions. The heats of formation of CH3O, C2H5O, CH3CO, HCO, COOH, and their positive ions have been determined. The formyl radical has a heat of formation of 8 ± 3 kcal/mole. Ions of composition CH3O+ and C2H5O+ from these compounds always have the hydroxy carbinyl structure at threshold energies. The method is shown to be competitive with the best methods of chemical kinetics for determining bond dissociation energies.