B. Kanawati, M. Harir, P. Schmitt‐Kopplin
Nov 1, 2009
Citations
1
Influential Citations
14
Citations
Journal
International Journal of Mass Spectrometry
Abstract
Abstract Diuron (3-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)-1,1-dimethylurea), a common herbicide from phenyl urea class, was investigated by studying the formation of several negative ions [M−H] − in the gas phase and the fragmentation behaviour of the thermodynamically most probably formed isomeric anions upon linear ion acceleration/collision experiments. The collision induced dissociation experiments (CID) were carried out in a hexapole–quadrupole–hexapole hybrid system coupled to 12 T magnet with infinity ICR cell for high resolution measurements. Two distinctive main pathways were observed in the MS/MS spectrum. Sustained off-resonance irradiation (SORI) experiments inside the ICR cell reinforce the fragmentation channels obtained from linear ion acceleration experiments. The fragmentation pathways were also completely investigated by the use of B3LYP/6-311+G(2d,p)//B3LYP/6-31+G(d) level of theory. Elimination of dimethylamine takes place in a two-step process, by which two successive 1,3 proton shifts occur. The second 1,3 proton shift is concerted with the departure of dimethylamine. The driving force for the (CH 3 ) 2 NH elimination is the formation of isocyanate group. The formed primary product ion can further decompose to release HCl through a new transition state. A stable new aromatic product ion is formed with 10π electrons. Loss of C 3 H 5 NO neutral from another anionic isomer of the precursor ion was also observed and is characteristic for the amide terminal of the diamide functional group. A concerted mechanism is proposed, by which N–C bond breakage and cyclization of the eliminated neutral fragment C 3 H 5 NO takes place simultaneously to form 1-methyl-aziridin-2-one.