The electron impact (EI) mass spectra of isomeric S-and O-aryl (2-naphthyl, R-Ph-= aryl, where R = H, NO 2 , COOCH 3 , COCH 3 and OCH 3 ) dimethylthiocarbamates have been studied in detail. The EI spectra of O-aryl dimethylthiocarbamates include some of the fragment ions that are characteristic of the corresponding S-aryl isomer, which could be explained by a Newman-Kwart rearrangement in the ion source of the mass spectrometer, after ionization. The EI mass spectra of S-aryl dimethylthiocarbamates showed specific fragment ions resulting from cleavage of the molecular ion involving the bond between sulfur and the carbonyl group of the carbamate moiety (a-cleavage). The EI mass spectra of O-aryl dimethylthiocarbamates, however, showed the fragmentation of the molecular ion by a-cleavage involving the bonds on both sides of oxygen atom. Further, the EI mass spectra of O-aryl dimethylthiocarbamates containing an electron-withdrawing substituent (-R) on the aryl group showed a characteristic fragment ion corresponding to [M À R] . Copyright # 2001John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.Mass spectrometry continues to be a sensitive tool not only for the characterization of compounds of different nature, but also for the study of gas-phase reactions. Rearrangement reactions play a major role in the solution phase, which can sometimes be a direct pathway for critical transformations. Many solution-phase rearrangements are also studied in the ion source of a mass spectrometer, a procedure suitable for exploring the fundamental nature of the rearrangements in the absence of solvent. 1±5 The electron impact (EI) source is useful for the study of intramolecular rearrangements, because the fragmentation processes under EI conditions are unimolecular processes. One such intramolecular rearrangement is the Newman-Kwart rearrangement of O-aryl dialkylthiocarbamates found under solution-phase conditions. 6±14 A number of phenols have been converted to the corresponding thiol compounds by exploiting the NewmanKwart rearrangement (Scheme 1). Mass spectral analyses of reaction products of the Newman-Kwart rearrangement have not been reported in the literature, to our knowledge. Hence, a detailed study of the behaviour of isomeric S-aryl and O-aryl dimethylthiocarbamates under EI conditions was undertaken, and the results are presented.
EXPERIMENTALThe S-aryl dimethylthiocarbamates (1, 3, 5, 7 and 9; Scheme 2) were prepared from the corresponding O-aryl dimethylthiocarbamates (2, 4, 6, 8 and 10; Scheme 2) under microwave irradiation. 15 The structures of all the compounds were characterized by IR, NMR and mass spectrometry. Mass spectra were recorded using a Micromass Autospec M mass spectrometer equipped with an OPUS V3.IX data system, using a dedicated EI source. The source conditions were: accelerating voltage 7 kV, electron energy 70 eV, trap current 200 mA, and source temperature 250°C. Spectra were acquired using the data system with a scan time of 1s/decade and 0.5 s interscan delay. All the samples were introduced through an HP 5890 seri...