Reduced mobilities of lanthanide cations measured using high-resolution ion mobility mass spectrometry with comparisons between experiment and theory

•The mobilities of Eu+, Gd+, Yb+ and Lu+ have been measured.•A comparison between experimental and theoretical mobilities is provided.•This is the first time the reduced mobilities of lanthanide cation in helium have been experimentally studied.

Reduced mobilities for ground-state electronic configurations of Eu+, Gd+, Yb+, and Lu+ have been measured using a high-resolution ion mobility mass spectrometer. The instrument uses a 2 m drift tube to generate high-resolution ion mobility data. Lanthanide cations were generated using pulsed-laser vaporization of either a metal rod or foil target. The mobilities of these four lanthanide cations have been previously studied using high-quality ab initio calculations, to determine potential energy curves that described their interactions with the noble gases (He to Xe). A comparison between experimental and theoretical results shows extremely good agreement in three of the four systems.

Graphical abstractReduced mobilities for ground-state electronic configurations of Eu+, Gd+, Yb+ and Lu+ have been measured using a high-resolution ion mobility mass spectrometer. The instrument uses a 2 m drift tube to generate high-resolution ion mobility data. Lanthanide cations were generated using pulsed-laser vaporization of either a metal rod or foil target. The mobilities of these four lanthanide cations have been previously studied using high-quality ab initio calculations, where potential energy curves were generated to determine their interactions with the noble gases (He-Xe). Thus, a comparison between experimental and theoretical results is provided.Download high-res image (104KB)Download full-size image