Poly(naphthylene) is of interest, in particular, due to its
intrinsic electrical conductivity.
Reported here are the initial steps in the metal-catalyzed
polymerization of naphthalene as
observed in the gas-phase reactions of Sc+,
Ti+, V+, Fe+,
Co+, and Ni+ with
1-halonaphthalenes studied in a Fourier transform mass spectrometer.
Sc+, Ti+, V+, and
Fe+ were found
to dehydrohalogenate all of the halides stepwise, to produce ions of
the form
M(C10H6)
n
+.
Up to 6 steps of dehydrohalogenations were observed in the case of
the reactions of Fe+
with 1-chloronaphthalene. Co+ and Ni+
exhibited similar behavior except in the case of
1-fluoronaphthalene, where only condensation products were observed.
Sc+ showed unusual
reactivity by also being able to eliminate
C2H2, this reaction being most prominent in
the
case of fluoronaphthalene. Aside from dehydrohalogenations,
Ti+ was found to eliminate a
hydrogen atom to form TiC10H6X+
in its reactions with all of the halides. 2-Bromonaphthalene was also studied and compared with the results for
1-bromonaphthalene, but no
significant differences were observed. Secondary and higher order
reactions were investigated, and several ionic products from primary and secondary reactions
were studied by
collision-induced dissociation (CID). The formation of
(C10H6)
n
+
with n = 2 and 3 was
observed and was in some cases formed by loss of M or MX from
M(C10H6)
n
+
and
M(C10H6)
n
X+,
respectively, but also in direct reactions of
M(C10H6)
n
-
1
+
with the neutral halonaphthalene,
which is in contrast with the behavior observed for the related phenyl
halides in an earlier
study. The ionization potentials of
(C10H6)n with n = 2
and 3 are lower than that of iron
(7.87 eV) as Fe was lost upon CID of
Fe(C10H6)
n
+
for n = 2 and 3. The thermodynamical
consequences of the reactions are discussed, as well as deductions
concerning the structure
of several of the ionic reaction products.