Stability trends and fragmentation patterns of gaseous yttrium oxide clusters studied by fast atom bombardment tandem mass spectrometry

Abstract

The fragmentation patterns of yttrium oxide cluster species YO+, Y2O2+, Y2O3+, Y3O4+, Y4O6+, Y5O7+, Y6O8+ and Y7O10+ were investigated at collision energies 30-110 and 170 eV by fast atom bombardment tandem mass spectrometry. The collision activated dissociation (CAD) spectra obtained revealed higher thermodynamic stability for the clusters of general formula YαO(3α-1)/2+, where a is an odd number (e.g. YO+, Y3O4+, Y5O7+, Y7O10+) which are also the preferred CAD products for all oxide clusters studied. These most stable oxides are constituted by trivalent yttrium only whereas those containing formally tetravalent yttrium YaO3a/2+, (where a is even) e.g. Y2O3+ and Y4O6+, are extremely unstable. The clusters YaO(3a-2)/2+, (where a is even) containing divalent yttrium, e.g. Y2O2+ and Y6O8+, have considerable stability but their CAD products are again the thermodynamic products YaO(3a-1)/2+. Electronic structures appear to have overriding significance in determining the thermo- dynamic stabilities of the oxide cluster species. © 1988