In this study, preparation and decomposition of five novel pentavalent fluorosiliconates, RSi(CH 3 ) 3 F Ϫ (R ϭ CH 3 CH 2 O, CF 3 CH 2 O, (CH 3 ) 2 CHO, (CH 3 ) 3 SiO, and (CH 3 ) 3 SiNH) is used to investigate the process of fluoride-induced desilylation. The siliconates were characterized by collision-induced dissociation and energy-resolved mass spectrometry. Decomposition of RSi(CH 3 ) 3 F Ϫ leads to loss of the nucleophile R Ϫ and FSi(CH 3 ) 3 , except in the case of (CH 3 ) 3 SiNHSi(CH 3 ) 3 F Ϫ , where HF loss is also observed. Ion affinities for FSi(CH 3 ) 3 have been measured for all five nucleophiles, and compare well with computational predictions. The observed trend of the bond dissociation energies resembles the trend of ⌬H acid values for the corresponding conjugate acids, RH. Additionally, this data has been incorporated with existing thermochemistry to derive fluoride affinities for four of the silanes (R ϭ CH 3 CH 2 O, (CH 3 ) 2 CHO, (CH 3 ) 3 SiO, and (CH 3 ) 3 SiNH). We use the fluoride affinity of the silanes and the FSi(CH 3 ) 3 affinity of the departing nucleophilic anion to assess the feasibility of fluorideinduced desilylation of the silanes examined in this work. (J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 2005, 16, 697-707)