Analysis of heterogeneous water vapor uptake by metal iodide cluster ions via differential mobility analysis-mass spectrometry

The sorption of vapor molecules onto pre-existing nanometer sized clusters is of importance in understanding particle formation and growth in gas phase environments and devising gas phase separation schemes. Here, we apply a differential mobility analyzer-mass spectrometer based approach to observe directly the sorption of vapor molecules onto iodide cluster ions of the form (MI)xM+ (x = 1-13, M = Na, K, Rb, or Cs) in air at 300 K and with water saturation ratios in the 0.01-0.64 range. The extent of vapor sorption is quantified in measurements by the shift in collision cross section (CCS) for each ion. We find that CCS measurements are sensitive enough to detect the transient binding of several vapor molecules to clusters, which shift CCSs by only several percent. At the same time, for the highest saturation ratios examined, we observed CCS shifts of up to 45%. For x < 4, cesium, rubidium, and potassium iodide cluster ions are found to uptake water to a similar extent, while sodium iodide clusters uptake...