Mass spectrometry for investigations of gas-phase radical cation chemistry. The two step cycloaddition of the benzene radical cation and 1,3-butadiene

Mass spectrometric techniques are now used extensively for the study of gas-phase radical cation chemistry. The generation and structural properties, the unimolecular and bimolecular chemistry of some representative radical cation systems, and the methods of study are reviewed. The structure of the ionmolecule adduct produced in the reaction of the benzene radical cation and neutral 1,3-butadiene was investigated by collisionally stabilizing the adduct and then acquiring its collision-activated decomposition spectrum. The CAD spectrum of the adduct changes dramatically as a function of the degree of collisional stabilization. This observation is interpreted in terms of two distinct structures for the adduct. The species that is stabilized at 0.7 Torr has a CAD spectrum similar to the 2-phenyl-2-butene radical cation. The second structure, stabilized at 0.1 Torr, has a CAD similar to that of 1-methylindan. The results of these experiments are interpreted in terms of a two-step cycloaddition mechanism for the formation of the 1-methylindan radical cation.