Mass spectrometry studies of carbon-nitrogen cluster anions produced by laser ablation - Mass distribution and collision induced dissociation

Abstract

Carbon-nitrogen cluster anions with various compositions were produced by laser ablating the K-3[Fe(CN)(6)] sample and investigated by collision induced dissociation on a home-made tandem time-of-flight mass spectrometer. In addition to the previously studied CnN- ions, the binary clusters generated in the experiment can be composed of up to 11 nitrogen atoms. The species with similar mass distribution can also be created from organic compounds such as tetracyanoethylene, but K-4[Fe(CN)(6)] and other cyanide coordination compounds could only produce binary cluster anions containing a single nitrogen atom. Based on the analysis of their fragmentation patterns, it is suggested that the cluster anions containing a single nitrogen atom are linear and those composed of more than two nitrogen atoms are mostly planar. Most of the species are highly conjugated, without or with very few dangling bonds. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.