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Cationated cyclopropanes as reaction intermediates in mass spectra: an earlier incarnation of ion‐neutral complexes
Author(s) -
Meyerson Seymour
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
organic mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.475
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9888
pISSN - 0030-493X
DOI - 10.1002/oms.1210240412
Subject(s) - cyclopropane , incarnation , mass spectrum , discontinuity (linguistics) , chemistry , interpretation (philosophy) , ion , philosophy , ring (chemistry) , organic chemistry , theology , linguistics
The appearance a decade ago of the concept of ion‐neutral complexes as intermediates in unimolecular decompositions constituted a major advance in mechanistic interpretation of mass spectra. The concept, however, was not new; it goes back to the introduction of the cationated cyclopropane in the mid‐1950s. Its development did not occur via a smooth progression; rather, its history bridges a sharp discontinuity. The early workers, in a curious historical quirk, failed to generalize on the idea beyond complexes in which the neutral component is cyclopropane or a closely related species. Hence it took an independent rediscovery of the concept to usher in the rapid growth and wide application that characterize its present stage of development.