Reactions of Laser Ablation-magnesium Plasma with Methanol Clusters1

The laser ablation-molecular beam(LA-MB) method is useful for studying the reactions of metal ions with molecular clusters. Reactions of magnesium plasma with methanol clusters were studied by using this method. A specially designed reaction cell was used as a fast flow reactor operated under thermal conditions, and the reaction products were measured with a time-of-flight(TOF) mass spectrometer. Surprisingly, several series of cluster ions with complex sizes and intensity distributions were obtained when the laser ablating was applied to different parts of the molecular beam. In the front part of the molecular beam, strong Mg+ (CH3OH)n(n = 0–5) and weak H+ (CH3OH)n (n = 0–5) cluster ions were observed with relatively small cluster sizes; in the middle part of the molecular beam, the main cluster ions were H+ (CH3OH)n(n = 6–17) and H+ (H3O)2 (CH3OH)n(n = 6–17) with a relatively large cluster size and a weak intensity; in the back part of the molecular beam, two new series of cluster ions, MgO+ (H2O)(CH3OH)n(n = 6–10) and MgOCH3+ (CH3OH)n(n = 6–10), were obtained and accompanied by weak H+ (CH3OH)n(n = 4–7) and H+ (H2O)2 (CH3OH)n(n = 3–6). The formation mechanisms and speed characteristics of the cluster ions are discussed in this article.