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Ion–neutral correlations from the dissociation of metal oxide cluster ions in a reflectron time‐of‐flight mass spectrometer
Author(s) -
Van Stipdonk M. J.,
Justes D. R.,
English R. D.,
Schweikert E. A.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9888
pISSN - 1076-5174
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9888(199906)34:6<677::aid-jms821>3.0.co;2-j
Subject(s) - chemistry , reflectron , ion , dissociation (chemistry) , oxide , mass spectrometry , analytical chemistry (journal) , cluster (spacecraft) , bismuth , inorganic chemistry , time of flight mass spectrometry , ionization , organic chemistry , chromatography , computer science , programming language
A time‐of‐flight mass spectrometer with an electrostatic mirror was used to probe the composition and structure of polyatomic secondary ions via their metastable dissociation following the impact of MeV energy primary ions. The experimental approach combines event‐by‐event bombardment and detection and coincidence counting, allowing the correlation of neutral and ion fragments originating from the same precursor molecule or cluster ion. To evaluate the ion–neutral correlation method, the dissociation pathways for metal oxide cluster ions sputtered from bismuth [(Bi 2 O 3 ) n BiO + ], lanthanum [(La 2 O 3 ) n LaO + ] and calcium nitrate [(CaO) n H + , (CaO) n Ca + ] were determined. The metal oxide clusters dissociate by shedding stoichiometric units. For instance, (La 2 O 3 ) n LaO + cluster ions dissociate by evaporating a single La 2 O 3 unit. Similar results were obtained for the bismuth oxide cluster ions. The (CaO) n H + cluster ions from calcium nitrate dissociate by evaporating one or more CaO units, and show preferential decay into fragment ions with favored face‐centered‐cubic structures such as (CaO) 2 H + and (CaO) 4 H + . Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.