Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 12, 2025

Coulomb Explosion Imaging as a Tool to Distinguish Between Stereoisomers
Published on: August 18, 2017
Three-body deprotonation fragmentation dynamics of C6H63+ induced by electron-impact ionization
Xiaorui Xue1, Jiaqi Zhou1, Xintai Hao1
1MOE Key Laboratory for Nonequilibrium Synthesis and Modulation of Condensed Matter, School of Physics, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
Abstract:
The three-body fragmentation dynamics of benzene trications C6H63+ induced by 200 eV electron-impact produced by a photoemission cathode is investigated. All three fragment ions are detected in coincidence, and their momentum vectors are determined by employing a COLTRIMS reaction microscope. The detailed kinematical information of three deprotonation fragmentation channels of H+ + C3H2+ + C3H3+, H+ + C2H3+ + C4H2+, and H+ + C2H2+ + C4H3+ are obtained. By analyzing the momentum and energy correlation spectra among all the three fragment ions, we find that all the three channels are primarily generated by sequential fragmentation processes. Each channel has two deprotonation pathways, corresponding to proton emission in the first or second step of sequential fragmentation, respectively. These results provide insight into the mechanisms and dynamics of deprotonation and ring-breaking reactions in the three-body fragmentation processes of aromatic ring molecules.
Related Concept Videos
Mass Spectrometry: Molecular Fragmentation Overview
One type of fragmentation pattern is the cleavage of a single bond in the molecular ion. The cleavage leads to a radical and a cation. The cleavage can...
Chemical Ionization (CI) Mass Spectrometry
Mass Spectrometry: Carboxylic Acid, Ester, and Amide Fragmentation
For example,...
Mass Spectrometry: Alcohol Fragmentation
Mass Spectrometry: Alkyne Fragmentation
¹³C NMR: Distortionless Enhancement by Polarization Transfer (DEPT)

