Mass spectrometric experiments at extremely low (<10-6 mbar) and moderate (0.5 mbar) pressures are used to examine the reactions of atomic vanadium cation with molecular oxygen and water. With O2, rapid O-atom abstraction gives rise to the formation of VO+ cation (k = 3 × 10-10 cm3 molecule-1 s-1). Interestingly, despite a similar thermochemistry, the O-atom transfer from water to bare V+ is less efficient by more than an order of magnitude (k = 8 × 10-12 cm3 molecule-1 s-1). Subsequent associations of VO+ with either O2 or H2O occur with very low efficiencies and involve termolecular stabilization mechanisms. The low probability of degenerate 16O/18O exchange between VO+ and water indicates the operation of a sizable kinetic barrier. Ab initio calculations using density functional theory lend further support to the interpretation of the experimental data and provide the first thermochemical information on VOn+ cations with n > 2, as well as some hydrated species. In general, the dipolar water ligand is found to be much more strongly bound to the cationic vanadium complexes than is dioxygen.
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