Competitive ion kinetics in direct mass spectrometric organic speciation. 1993 Progress report

The following joint projects are either in progress, or have been completed. (1) Southern Illinois University, Prof. S. Scheiner--Combined experimental-theoretical study of the thermochemistry of protonation, complexation, and hydration of di- and polyfunctional ethers. (2) Eastern illinois University, Prof. C. Deakyne--Essentially the same framework as above. The focus here was to determine whether C or N lone pair electrons were more effective in forming ionic hydrogen bonds. (3) Virginia Commonwealth University-Prof. S. El-Shall--The author put the wrap on a joint thermochemical (NIST) and beam expansion study (VCU) which probed structures and stabilities of methanol clusters incorporating either CH{sub 3}CN or (CH{sub 3}){sub 3}N. MeCN and TMA were chosen because of their widely differing proton affinities (PA`s) and the fact that they form single H-bonds (i.e., complex intraclusters involving multiple bonding are unlikely). (4) University of Maryland-Baltimore County-Prof. J. Liebman and the Phillips Laboratory Supercomputer Center, Kirtland Air Force Base, NM-A. Fant--One of the most perplexing problems among physical organic chemists has involved the site of protonation of a class of molecules referred to as quinones and, in particular, the symmetric member, para-benzoquinone, C{sub 6}H{sub 4} (=O{sub 2}), designated below as PBQ. Possible protonation sites either the ring or carbonyl function