Mild route to generate gaseous metal anions

Athula B. Attygalle, Frank U. Axe, Carl S. Weisbecker

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Gaseous metal anions such as Na-, K-, Cs-, and Ag- can be generated at ambient temperatures by the collision-induced dissociation of the anions of several dicarboxylic acid salts, including oxalate, maleate, fumarate, succinate, and glutamate salts. The formation of gaseous metal anions in this way is unprecedented because the metal is initially present in its cationic form. The mild process described here could facilitate novel applications of metal anions as selective reagents for gas-phase ion-molecule and ion-ion reactions. Ab initio calculations were used to describe the dissociation process for anions of the oxalate salts. The formation of alkalides occurs via production of a metal-carbon dioxide anion intermediate with a bidentate three-center two-electron bond to the metal. The metal atom acquires a partial negative charge in the intermediate structure.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)681-688
Number of pages8
JournalRapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry
Volume25
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2011

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