Time-resolved photoionization mass

In several studies, we have combined TRPD data with results obtained over a broader energy range by the time-resolved photoionization mass spectrometer (TPIMS) technique of Lifshitz s group," which is not fully energy resolved but provides a successful complementary technique to TRPD, as shown in the examples below. 

Slow dissociation rates (10 -10 s ) have been measured in Dunbar s laboratory by time-resolved photodissociation, which consists of trapping ions in an ICR cell during a variable delay time after a phot-odissociating photon pulse. The technique called time-resolved photoionization mass spectrometry , developed by Lifshitz, consists of trapping photoions in a cylindrical trap at very low pressure to avoid bimolecular collisions, and then ejecting them into a mass filter after a variable delay covering the microsecond to millisecond range. When the dissociation rate constant becomes lower than ca. 10 s competition with infrared fluorescence takes place and limits the lifetime of the decomposition process. This has to be taken into account to extract the dissociation rate constant from the experimental data. 

Malinovich Y, and Lifshitz C (1986) Time-dependent mass spectra and breakdown graphs. 7. Time-resolved photoionization mass spectrometry of iodobenzene. The heat of formation of CeHs- Journal of Physical Chemistry 90 2200-2203. Malinovich Y and Llifshitz C (1986) Time-dependent mass spectra and breakdown graphs. 8. Dissociative photoionization of phenol. Journal of Physical Chemistry 90 4311-4317. 

Middaugh, J.E. (2014) The Study of Bimolecular Radical Reactions Using a Novel Time-resolved Photoionization Time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry and Laser Absorption Spectrometry Apparatus. PhD Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Mass spectrometric studies are not limited to the investigation of stable intermediates they have also been carried out on reaction transition states. The ultrafast studies by Zewail, for example, are nominally mass spectrometric based, where photoionization is used to detect reactive species on exceedingly short (femtosecond) time scales.Time resolved studies provide insight into the rates of unimo-lecular reactions, but do not provide direct thermochemical insight. 

Recently, Zewail and co-workers have combined the approaches of photodetachment and ultrafast spectroscopy to investigate the reaction dynamics of planar COT.iii They used a femtosecond photon pulse to carry out ionization of the COT ring-inversion transition state, generated by photodetachment as shown in Figure 5.4. From the photoionization efficiency, they were able to investigate the time-resolved dynamics of the transition state reaction, and observe the ring-inversion reaction of the planar COT to the tub-like D2d geometry on the femtosecond time scale. Thus, with the advent of new mass spectrometric techniques, it is now possible to examine detailed reaction dynamics in addition to traditional state properties." ... 

Photoionization always produces two species available for analysis the ion and the electron. By measuring both photoelectrons and photoions in coincidence, the kinetic electron may be assigned to its correlated parent ion partner, which may be identified by mass spectrometry. The extension of the photoelectron-photoion-coincidence (PEPICO) technique to the femtosecond time-resolved domain was shown to be very important for studies of dynamics in clusters [131, 132]. In these experiments, a simple yet efficient permanent magnet design magnetic bottle electron spectrometer was used for photoelectron... 

Laser-induced multiphoton ionization spectroscopy has been applied to the parent, methyl-, and chloro-substituted pyrazines <85ANC29ll). The ions produced by laser photoionization in the supersonic jet are mass-analyzed using a time of flight mass spectrometer, in which the spectra obtained reflect the absorption of the n-n transition. Mass-resolved excitation spectroscopy by laser ionization in the infrared region has also been applied to the conformational analysis of a-alkyl substituted pyrazines <92JA5269). Dynamic and structural properties of electronically excited states of pyrazine have been elucidated from high resolution laser spectroscopy with MHz resolution <88JST(173)201). 

Time-resolved ionization offers several advantages as a probe of these wavepackets [41, 42, 343, 360]. For example, the ground state of an ion is often better characterized than higher excited states of the neutral molecule, particularly for polyatomics. Ionization is also universal and hence there are no dark states. Furthermore, ionization provides both ions and photoelectrons and, while ion detection provides mass and kinetic-energy resolution in time-resolved studies [508], photoelectron spectra can provide complementary information on the evolution of the wavepacket [22, 63, 78, 132, 201, 270, 271, 362, 363, 377]. Its utihty for real-time probing of molecular dynamics in the femtosecond regime has been nicely demonstrated in studies of wavepackets on excited states of Na2 [22], on the B state of I2 [132], and on the A state of Nal [201]. Femtosecond photoelectron-photoion coincidence imaging studies of photodissociation dynamics have been reported [107]. 

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