Collisionally induced dissociative ionization of neutral products from ion fragmentations. 2—Collision gas effects and related phenomena

The ion retardation method (whereby an ion beam is prevented from entering a collision gas cell by means of a voltage applied thereto) for permitting the examination of the neutral products of unimolecular ion fragmentations has been extended to include observations of neutral products generated by collisions before the gas cell and their related phenomenology. Observations obtained using an ion beam deflection electrode, an alternative method of preventing the ion beam from entering the collision cell, are also reported. When low collision gas pressures are employed (<2×10−7 Torr He), this latter method provides collisionally induced dissociative ionization (CIDI) mass spectra of unimolecularly generated neutral fragmentation products, free of complications arising from events induced by collisions occurring outside the collision cell. The CIDI mass spectra of CH3˙, C2H4, CH3ĊO, CH3OH and C2H6 generated from positive ion precursors and CH3˙, CH3O˙ and C6H5NO2 generated by electron loss from negative ions are described.