Quadrupole ion trap studies of the structure and reactivity of transition metal ion pair complexes

Ion pairs are common species observed in the electrospray mass spectra of transition metal coordination complexes. To understand the nature of these ion pairs, a systematic study of the gas-phase chemistry of these species using ion-molecule reactions and collision-induced dissociation (CID) was carried out. Ion pair complexes of the type MLnX+ (where M is Mn(II), Fe(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) or Zn(II), L is 1,10-phenanthroline, 2,2'-bipyridine, ethylenediamine, diethylenetriamine or 1,4,8,11-tetraazacyclotetradecane and X is Cl-, NO3-, acetylacetonate, ClO4-, acetate or SCN-) were studied. Ion-molecule reactions can distinguish whether the counterion in an ion pair is an inner- or outer-sphere ligand and can determine the coordination mode of the counterion. In addition, CID and ion-molecule reactions reveal some interesting chemistry of these complexes and unique coordination modes for some of the anions studied here were inferred from the ion-molecule reactions. For example, the thiocyanate ion is found to coordinate in a bidentate fashion in Zn(II) and Ni(II) complexes, contrasting behavior typically observed in solution. Also, certain Co(II) and Fe(II) ion pair complexes undergo oxidation reactions in which species such as dioxygen and nitric oxide from the counterions ClO4- and NO3- are transferred to the Co(II) and Fe(II) complexes, showing the inherent affinity of these metals for these molecules. These complexes were also studied by ion-molecule reactions and CID. Dioxygen in complexes formed by CID is demonstrated to be bidentate, suggesting the formation of a peroxo ligand with concurrent oxidation of the metal.