Advances in flowing afterglow and selected-ion flow tube techniques

Abstract

New developments in flowing afterglow and selected-ion flow tube (SIFT) techniques are briefly reviewed. Particular emphasis is given to the new chemical and physical information that can be obtained with use of the tandem flowing afterglow-triple quadrupole apparatus developed in the author's laboratory. Several outstanding recent achievements in the design and utilization of flowing afterglow and SIFT instruments in other laboratories are briefly highlighted that illustrate the power and flexibility of flow-tube-based methods. These include isotope tracer experiments with the tandem flowing afterglow-SIFT instrument in Boulder, studies of large molecular cluster ions with the variable temperature facility at Penn State, and gas-phase metal ion reactions with the laser ablation/fast flow reactor in Madison. Recent applications of the flowing afterglow-triple quadrupole instrument in our laboratory have made use of collision-induced dissociation (CID) as a tool for synthesizing novel ions and for obtaining new thermo-chemical information from threshold energy measurements. Collision-induced decar☐ylation of organic car☐ylate ions provides access to a variety of unusual and highly basic carbanions that cannot be generated with conventional ion sources. The formation and properties of saturated alkyl ions and studies of gas-phase reactions of the methyl anion are briefly described. We have developed a new method for carrying out “preparative CID” in a flowing afterglow with use of a mini-drift tube; some recent applications of this new ion source are presented. Measurement of CID thresholds for simple cleavage reactions of thermalized ions can provide accurate measures of bond strengths, gas-phase acidities and basicities, and heats of formation for ions and reactive neutral species. Applications of this approach in the thermochemical characterization of carbenes, benzynes and biradicals are described. Future prospects for the continued development of flow reactor-based methods are also briefly discussed.