Mass spectrometric and theoretical studies on the fragmentation mechanisms of hexamethyldigermane and hexamethyldisilane ions in the gas phase

Fragmentation mechanisms of hexamethyldigermane and hexamethyldisilane ions have been investigated using the collision-induced dissociation-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (CID-MS/MS) and ab initio MO calculations. The results of CID-MS/MS spectra showed that the [(CH3)3GeGe(CH3)3]+ ion was fragmented to be (CH3)3Ge+, followed by the secondary fragmentation generating CH3Ge+. The results of ab initio calculations showed that a C2H4 elimination occurred more easily than a C2H6 elimination from (CH3)3Ge+ in the low energy region.