Survey of reaction types in low-energy colliosional activation of protonated methyl alkyl ketones

Abstract

In contrast to high-energy collisions, where simple cleavages are commoner, rearrangements typically account for 96–100% of products in low-energy collisions of the [M + 1] + ions of aliphatic methyl ketones. Rules for predicting low-energy helium collsional-activated decomposition (CAD) spectra of the ketones are based on proton affinities of fragments formed by simple rearrangements. The commonest reaction is equivalent to the energetically improbable four-center 1,3-H or 1,3-R shift; other rearrangements equivalent to processes with five-, six-, or seven-center activated complexes are less important. In larger ions, loss of water followed by loss of alkene dominates. O-Protonated enol forms either lose water to give a carbonium ion that rearranges to forms capable of losing olefin fragments, or rearranges to an intermediate in the formation of acetyl ion and an alkane. O-Protonated keto forms rearrange to alkanes and protonated smaller carbonyl compounds. The ion kinetic energies necessary to produce several intense daughter ions at threshold establish the order of sequential fragmentations. When helium is the collisional gas and the ion energy is 30 eV in the laboratory frame (the maximum value studies), the ion energy is only 0.8–1.9 eV in the center-of-mass frame depending on its size. Only a fraction of this kinetic energy is converted to internal energy, so that onsets of reaction channels differing by several tenths of an electron-volt are easily studied. Some isomers of methyl ketones can be easily distinguished by He-CAD spectra of their [M + 1] + ions.