Studies of negative ions by collision-induced decomposition and hydrogen-deuterium exchange techniques

Development of two new techniques for studying the gas phase chemistry of negative ions is reported. Collision induced dissociation (CID) of (M-1)- ions has been accomplished in a newly constructed triple stage quadrupole mass spectrometer. This instrument was assembled by adding two additional Finnigan quadrupole mass filters to a Finnigan Model 3200 CI mass spectrometer. Generation of (M-1)- ions is accomplished by allowing OH- and sample to react under CI conditions in the ion source. The first quadrupole mass filter, Q1, is then employed to selectively pass the (M-1)- ion into a second quadrupole filter containing argon or neon at 10(-3) torr. On collision with the inert gas the (M-1)- ions dissociate into fragments which are then mass analyzed in the third quadrupole filter, CID spectra of (M-1)- ions from twelve carbonyl compounds are presented in this paper. Ion molecule isotope exchange reactions in the CI ion source can be used to count the number of hydrogen atoms in many different chemical environments. Collisions between sample (M-1)- ions and deuterium-labeled reagent gases (ND3, D2O, EtOD) facilitate incorporation of deuterium into the negative ion if the basicities of the sample and reagent anions are similar. Thus it is possible to selectively incorporate deuterium into many organic samples by controlling the exothermicity of the acid base, ion-molecule chemistry.