Vitali V. Lavrov

Reactions of Atomic Cations with Methane: Gas Phase Room-Temperature Kinetics and Periodicities in Reactivity

Reactions of methane have been measured with 59 atomic metal cations at room temperature in helium bath gas at 0.35 Torr using an inductively-coupled plasma/selected-ion flow tube (ICP/SIFT) tandem mass spectrometer. The atomic cations were produced at approximately 5500 K in an ICP source and allowed to decay radiatively and to thermalize by collisions with argon and helium atoms prior to reaction. Rate coefficients and product distributions are reported for the reactions of fourth-row atomic cations from K(+) to Se(+), of fifth-row atomic cations from Rb(+) to Te(+) (excluding Tc(+)), of sixth-row atomic cations from Cs(+) to Bi(+), and of the lanthanide cations from La(+) to Lu(+) (excluding Pm(+)). Two primary reaction channels were observed: C-H bond insertion with elimination of H(2), and CH(4) addition. The bimolecular H(2) elimination was observed in the reactions of CH(4) with As(+), Nb(+), and some sixth-row metal cations, i.e., Ta(+), W(+), Os(+), Ir(+), Pt(+); secondary and higher-order H(2) elimination was observed exclusively for Ta(+), W(+), and Ir(+) ions. All other transition-metal cations except Mn(+) and Re(+) were observed to react with CH(4) exclusively by addition, and up to two methane molecules were observed to add sequentially to most transition-metal ions. CH(4) addition was also observed for Ge(+), Se(+), La(+), Ce(+), and Gd(+) ions, while the other main-group and lanthanide cations did not react measurably with methane.

A novel inductively coupled plasma/selected-ion flow tube mass spectrometer for the study of reactions of atomic and atomic oxide ions

Abstract A novel inductively coupled plasma/selected-ion flow tube (ICP/SIFT) mass spectrometer has been constructed for the study of the kinetics and product distributions of reactions of atomic and atomic oxide ions with neutral molecules. The ICP essentially provides a universal source for atomic ions. The operation of the instrument is demonstrated with prototype reactivity and kinetic measurements.

A study of complexes Mg(NH3)n+· and Ag(NH3)n+, where n = 1–8: competition between direct coordination and solvation through hydrogen bonding

Abstract Density functional calculations at B3LYP/6-31+G(d) and B3LYP/DZVP are reported for Mg(NH 3 ) n +· , where n = 1–6 and for some solvated ions Mg(NH 3 ) n +· … NH 3 ( n = 1–3, 6). After correction for basis set superposition errors, the enthalpies for sequential addition of NH 3 to Mg +· resulting from direct coordination to the metal are 38.1, 26.6, 21.2, 13.7, 12.1, and 11.3 kcal mol −1 . The free energies for these same addition reactions are all negative, although for complexes with n ≥ 4 the values are very small. Attempts at optimising structures with higher coordination numbers all resulted in the formation of solvated octahedral complexes. Enthalpies for solvation through hydrogen bonding to one of the ligated NH 3 molecules are all less than 16 kcal mol −1 and decrease rapidly as the number of ligated NH 3 molecules increases. Molecular orbital calculations at B3LYP/DZVP have been used to optimise structures for ions Ag(NH 3 ) n + , where n = 1–6. The five-coordinate and six-coordinate structures have very small binding enthalpies (4.3 and 2.6 kcal mol −1 ) and the free energies for formation of these ions are positive. The binding energies for the addition of the first and second NH 3 molecules added to Ag + are 40.1 and 36.1 kcal mol −1 , while those for the third and fourth additions are much smaller (15.1 and 11.0 kcal mol −1 ). Adducts up to n = 3 have been detected in electrospray experiments. The first three adducts of Ag + with NH 3 have been formed in the selected ion flow tube apparatus and multicollision induced dissociation experiments show Ag(NH 3 ) 3 + to have a lower binding enthalpy than both Ag(NH 3 ) 2 + and Ag(NH 3 ) + .