S. Wei et al., METASTABLE DISSOCIATION OF METALLOCARBOHEDRENES - REACTION CHANNELS AND CLUSTER STABILITIES, Journal of physical chemistry, 97(38), 1993, pp. 9559-9561
An investigation of the metastable unimolecular dissociation channels
and decay fractions of Ti(m)C(n)+ was made using a reflectron time-of-
flight mass spectrometer, coupled with a laser vaporization source in
conjunction with multiphoton ionization. The measurements of the decay
fractions show that Ti8C12+ is a very stable species in accordance wi
th expectation for a closed cagelike structure and, most importantly,
provide the first available data on the relative stabilities for diffe
rent cluster ions involved in the formation of metallocarbohedrenes (M
et-Cars). Furthermore, the results reveal that the Ti8Cn+ mainly lose
carbon species for n greater-than-or-equal-to 14, while TimC12+ loses
only Ti for m greater-than-or-equal-to 6 and both Ti and C3 for m = 4
and 5; C2 is never a product of decomposition for this range of Met-Ca
r related species. The present findings are valuable in providing qual
itative information for assessing theoretical calculations of structur
es and properties of metallocarbohedrenes and their building blocks.