Ion–molecule reactions of methoxymethyl cations with some organic substrates studied by ion cyclotron resonance spectrometry

The reactions of methoxymethyl cations generated from dimethyl ether with propene, butene‐2, vinyl methyl ether, acetaldehyde and acetone have been studied. The collision complexes, generated with the olefines, may eliminate an olefine, a methanol and a formaldehyde molecule as shown by double resonance experiments. From deuterium labelling it is found, that in the cases of propene and butene‐2 the elimination of an olefine is accompanied by an extensive H/D interchange in the collision complexes, which has been shown not to occur in the long‐lived reactant methoxymethyl cations if the internal energy of the methoxymethyl cations is less than 2.3 eV. The H/D interchange in these collision complexes is reduced in the elimination of methanol and is almost completely suppressed in the elimination of formaldehyde. In reactions with vinyl methyl ether, however, the eliminations of methanol and formaldehyde from the corresponding collision complexes appear to proceed with extensive H/D interchange. These observations point to acyclic collision complexes rather than 4‐membered ring complexes. The collision complexes generated with acetaldehyde and acetone decompose by elimination of formaldehyde only. Deuterium labelling has shown that the formaldehyde molecule contains the original methylene group of the reactant methoxymethyl cations. In addition, 18 O labelling in acetone has shown that the original oxygen atom of the methoxymethyl cations is retained completely in the eliminated formaldehyde. These observations exclude any formation of 4‐membered ring collision complexes and can only be explained by acyclic complexes. Possible mechanisms of all reactions mentioned are discussed in the light of these results.