Gas-phase ion/molecule reactions of doubly charged clusters of Fe2+ or Mn2+ and methanol with ammonia

Abstract Ions with the general formula M(CH 3 OH) n 2+ (4 ≤ n ≤ 8) and M  Mn or Fe react with ammonia in the collision region of a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. The addition product M(CH 3 OH) n NH 3 2+ is not observed. The ions that are observed can be assigned to products of proton transfer and substitution reactions. For the complex ions with small coordination numbers, proton transfer is the predominant reaction whereas substitution dominates for the complexes with high coordination numbers. For the Mn 2+ complexes the yield of substitution products shows a gradual increase with the coordination number. For the Fe 2+ complexes the yield of substitution products is low for the complexes with coordination numbers 4–6 and increases sharply for coordination numbers 7 and 8.