The remarkable decarbonylation of CH3OPO+ and its distonic isomer CH2OPOH+: an experimental and CBS-QB3 computational study

The dissociation chemistry of the title ions was investigated using tandem mass spectrometry-based experiments in conjunction with isotopic labeling and computational quantum chemistry.Upon collisional activation, ions CH3OPO+ (1a) and CH2OPOH+ (1b) readily lose CH2O. This reaction is completely suppressed in the low-energy (metastable) ions, which instead abundantly lose CO. The product ion generated in this decarbonylation reaction is …