Electron-capture dissociation spectra

Fragmentation of peptides can also be observed with FTICR instruments. Infrared multiple photon dissociation (IRMPD) and electron capture dissociation (ECD) have been introduced as two alternative dissociation methods to the low-energy CID method. The IRMPD method produces many fragments that make the spectrum very complex and difficult to interpret. Some of the fragment types observed with IRMPD are b and y type ions or these ions that have lost ammonia or water. However, most of them are not these types of fragment ions. 

In neutralization-reionization mass spectrometric experiments on CH2Si+ formed by electron-impact dissociative ionization of ClCH2SiH3, Srinivas, Stilzle and Schwarz found evidence for the formation of a viable neutral molecule whose fragmentation pattern and collisional activation mass spectrum were in accord with a H2C=Si structure422. These authors suggested that their experiments supported electron-capture by CH2Si+" as a mechanism for the formation of H2C=Si in interstellar space. Various models have predicted that H2C=Si is one of the most abundant forms of silicon in dense interstellar clouds423. 

Our thermal functions Indicate that PF" is thermodynamically stable with respect to dissociation (P + F") below 2500 K. These predictions agree qualitatively with the results of MacNeil and Thynne ( ) who observed PF" in the negative ion mass spectrum of PF. Their reported appearance potential, AP(PF"/PFg) = 11.4 0.1 eV, gives EA(PF) = -0.47 eV assuming that the dissociative electron capture process is PF (g) + e" = PF"(g) + 2F(g). We believe this value is too low probably because of excess kinetic and/or excitation energies amounting to roughly 1.5 eV. 

Irradiation of the molecular radical anion of DESO, which has a yellow color, with light of X = 350-400 nm partially restores the red color and the ESR spectrum of the radical-anion pair. Similarly to the case of DMSO-d6 a comparison of the energetics of the photodissociation of the radical anion and dissociative capture of an electron by a DESO molecule permits an estimation of the energy of the hot electrons which form the radical-anion pair of DESO. This energy is equal to 2eV, similarly to DMSO-d6. The spin density on the ethyl radical in the radical-anion pair of DESO can be estimated from the decrease in hfs in comparison with the free radical to be 0.81, smaller than DMSO-d6. 

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