Fragmentation and Intracluster Reactions of Hydrated Aluminum Cations Al⁺(H₂O)_n, n = 3−50

Abstract

Hydrated aluminum cluster cations Al + (H 2 O) n with n ) 3-50 were stored in a collision-free environment, and their unimolecular fragmentation induced by the room temperature "black body" infrared background was studied. An interesting size-dependent intracluster reaction resulting in oxidation of the aluminum cation and elimination of molecular hydrogen was observed. The results are discussed and compared with similar recent studies of hydrated magnesium clusters.

Infrared spectroscopy of O˙− and OH− in water clusters: evidence for fast interconversion between O˙− and OH˙OH−

“…The reactant ions, (H 2 O) n À , were generated in a home-built external source 28 by laser vaporization of a solid zinc target and supersonic expansion of the hot plasma in a helium/water gas pulse. 30,31 The anionic water clusters were carried from the ion source into the 34 At each studied wavelength, a mass spectrum was taken after irradiating all clusters simultaneously, followed by recording a mass spectrum without laser irradiation. Following the approach described by Prell, O'Brien and Williams for sizeselected water cluster, 35 this allowed to quantify the contribution of blackbody infrared radiative dissociation (BIRD) 36-41 on cluster dissociation.…”

Reduction of Acetonitrile by Hydrated Magnesium Cations Mg+(H2O)n (n≈20–60) in the Gas Phase

“…[9][10][11]22] The vaporization laser and frequency doubling crystal were heated by 20 laser shots to avoid changes in the initial cluster distribution, followed by 20 laser shots at 10 Hz and 5 mJ pulse energy to generate the ions. The reaction delay was measured relative to the end of the fill cycle, at nominal t = 0 s, so the clusters resided up to 2 seconds in the ICR cell.…”

“…[4] In other systems, water activation results in elimination of atomic or molecular hydrogen and oxidation of the metal to the metal hydroxide. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] Ion-molecule reactions provide insight into the subtle chemistry of these species. Reactions with a strong acid such as HCl induce the elimination of atomic or molecular hydrogen, [10,12,15] and weak acids such as HCOOH also have a promoting effect.…”

Photodissociation and photochemistry of V+(H2O)n, n = 1–4, in the 360–680 nm region

“…The experiments are performed on a modified Bruker/Spectrospin CMS47X FT-ICR mass spectrometer, described in detail before [38][39][40]. Hydrated vanadium ions are produced by laser vaporization [41][42][43] of a solid vanadium disc, followed by supersonic expansion of the hot plasma in helium seeded with water vapor [29,39].…”

“…Hydrated vanadium ions are produced by laser vaporization [41][42][43] of a solid vanadium disc, followed by supersonic expansion of the hot plasma in helium seeded with water vapor [29,39]. The ions are transferred with an electrostatic lens system to the ultra-high vacuum region of the mass spectrometer, where they are stored in the ICR cell at a pressure of typically 1·10 -10 mbar.…”