Routes for the gas-phase total synthesis of dihydroxy magnesium carboxylate anions, [(RCO2)Mg(OH)2]–(R = CH3 and CH3(CH2)14)

Abstract

Dihydroxy magnesium carboxylates, [(RCO2)Mg(OH)2]–, a previously unknown class of compounds, have recently been discovered in meteorites using electrospray ionisation (ESI) ultra high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) and collision-induced dissociation (CID) experiments (A. Ruf et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 114 (2017) 2819). Here we present two general strategies for the gas-phase synthesis of [(RCO2)Mg(OH)2]– (where R = CH3 and CH3(CH2)14) in a linear quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer using combinations of CID and ion-molecule reactions (IMR) with water. Both involve the same first step (Step 1), where [(RCO2)Mg(O2CCH3)2]– precursor ions generated via ESI are mass selected and..