Ion-neutral correlations from the dissociation of metal oxide cluster ions in a reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometer Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • A time-of-flight mass spectrometer with an electrostatic mirror was used to probe the composition and structure of polyatomic secondary ions via their metastable dissociation following the impact of MeV energy primary ions. The experimental approach combines event-by-event bombardment and detection and coincidence counting, allowing the correlation of neutral and ion fragments originating from the same precursor molecule or cluster ion. To evaluate the ion-neutral correlation method, the dissociation pathways for metal oxide cluster ions sputtered from bismuth [(Bi2O3)(n)BiO+], lanthanum (La2O3)(n)LaO+] and calcium nitrate [(CaO)(n)H+, (CaO)(n)Ca+] were determined. The metal oxide clusters dissociate by shedding stoichiometric units. For instance, (La2O3)(n)LaO+ cluster ions dissociate by evaporating a single La2O3 unit. Similar results were obtained for the bismuth oxide cluster ions. The (CaO)(n)H+ cluster ions from calcium nitrate dissociate by evaporating one or more CaO units, and show preferential decay into fragment ions with favored face-centered-cubic structures such as (CaO)2H+ and (CaO)4H+.

published proceedings

  • Journal of Mass Spectrometry

author list (cited authors)

  • Van Stipdonk, M. J., Justes, D. R., English, R. D., & Schweikert, E. A.

citation count

  • 16

complete list of authors

  • Van Stipdonk, MJ||Justes, DR||English, RD||Schweikert, EA

publication date

  • June 1999

publisher