Excess energies in mass spectra of some oxygen-containing organic compounds

Abstract

Excess energies of the electron-impact induced dissociation of several oxygen-containing compounds have been estimated by measuring the translational energies of the fragment ions. The heats of formation of CH₃O, C₂H₅O, CH₃CO, HCO, COOH, and their positive ions have been determined. The formyl radical has a heat of formation of 8 ± 3 kcal/mole. Ions of composition CH₃O⁺ and C₂H₅O⁺ from these compounds always have the hydroxy carbinyl structure at threshold energies. The method is shown to be competitive with the best methods of chemical kinetics for determining bond dissociation energies.