Mass spectra of chlorinated aromatics formed in pulp bleaching: I—chlorinated catechols

A systematic study on the electron impact mass spectra of all nine chlorinated catechols in presented. Metastable ion analysis was used to elucidate the fragmentation pathways. The influence of the position of the chloro substituents can be used to distinguish the structural isomers. In this respect the most characteristic fragment ions are [MCHl]+˙, [MHCOOH]+˙, [MCOCl]+, [MHClCO]+˙, [MCHOCl]+˙ and [MHClHCl]+˙.