Decay pathway determination of even-size dicationic silver clusters: Ag162+ and Ag182+ revisited by pre-precursor selection and sequential decay

Abstract It is demonstrated how by selection of pre-precursor cluster ions Ag 2 n +1 2+ and collision-induced dissociation an ensemble of Ag 2 n 2+ can be produced, which is not contaminated by Ag n + clusters of the same size-to-charge state ratio, n / z . By use of this technique, Ag 16 2+ and Ag 18 2+ precursor ensembles have been prepared for further investigations. They are observed to decay by neutral monomer evaporation, Ag 2 n 2+ →Ag 2 n −1 2+ +Ag, and trimer fission, Ag 2 n 2+ →Ag 2 n −3 + +Ag 3 + , and show no sign of symmetric fission.