Relative dissociation energy measurements using ion trap collisional activation

The measured minimum resonance excitation amplitudes for decomposition of polyatomic ions in the quadrupole ion trap collisional activation experiment are shown to correlate with literature critical energies. The present article describes how experiments can be performed to derive threshold resonance excitation amplitudes via the kinetics associated with collision-induced dissociation (i.e., dissociation rate constants) in the quadrupole ion trap. The relationship between these threshold values and critical energies is established empirically by using kinetic data acquired for molecular ions with critical energies measured with other techniques. The experiments are complicated by the change in optimum resonance excitation frequency with amplitude, due presumably to contributions from higher order fields. It is proposed that the threshold resonance excitation amplitude is a measure of the change in temperature of the parent ion population required to achieve a measurable rate of decomposition. The present results indicate that the quadrupole ion trap may see new applications as a quantitative tool for the study of gaseous ion chemistry.