Chemical reactions of anions in the gas phase.

Anions of many types, both organic and inorganic, farmiliar and exotic, can be generated in the gas phase by rational chemical synthesis in a flowing afterglow apparatus. Once formed, the rates, products, and mechanisms of their reactions with neutral species of all kinds can be studied, not only at room temperature but at higher energies in a drift field. These completely unsolvated ions undergo a large number of reactions that are analogous to those they undergo in solution, as well as some that are less familiar. New types of ions, for which there are no counterparts in solution, can be produced and their chemical reactions explored.