Heavy water reactions with alkaline-earth metal dications in the gas phase: Kinetics at room temperature

Room temperature rate coefficients and product distributions are reported for the reactions initiated in D2O with dications of the alkaline-earth metals Mg, Ca, Sr and Ba. The measurements were performed with a selected-ion flow tube (SIFT) tandem mass spectrometer and electrospray ionization (ESI). Mg2+ reacts with water by a fast electron transfer leading to charge separation with a rate coefficient of 1.4 × 10−9 cm3 molecule−1 s−1. Ca2+ reacts with D2O in a first step to form the adduct Ca2+(D2O), with an effective bimolecular rate coefficient of 2.3 × 10−11 cm3 molecule−1 s−1, which then undergoes rapid charge separation by deuteron transfer to form CaOD+ and D3O+ in a second step with k = 7.9 × 10−10 cm3 molecule−1 s−1. The CaOD+ ion reacts further by clustering up to five more D2O molecules. Sr2+ clusters up to eight D2O molecules and Ba2+ up to seven D2O molecules, with the first addition of D2O being rate determining in each case and the last addition being distinctly slower, as might be expected from a transition in the occupation of the added water molecules from an inner to an outer hydration shell.