Charge stripping of ligated metal ions

The use of charge stripping to determine bond dissociation energies is evaluated with doubly charged first row metal hydroxides that are accessible by fast atom bombardment. Dications are produced by charge stripping of the monocation precursor. A linear behavior is obtained between the bond dissociation and the second ionization energies of the bare metals. To assess the validity of the determined Q_min values, the minimum shift in the kinetic energy of the dication relative to the monocation, the conditions of ion formation and type of charge stripping gas are investigated using ligated magnesium species. Molecular orbital calculations are also performed on ligated magnesium species to investigate whether vibrational or electronic excitation, which may affect the determined Q_min values, are present during ionization.