Kinetics of ion-molecule reactions with dimethyl methylphosphonate at 298 K for chemical ionization mass spectrometry detection of GX.

Kinetics studies of a variety of positive and negative ions reacting with the GX surrogate, dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP), were performed. All protonated species reacted rapidly, that is, at the collision limit. The protonated reactant ions created from neutrals with proton affinities (PAs) less than or equal to the PA for ammonia reacted exclusively by nondissociative proton transfer. Hydrated H(3)O(+) ions also reacted rapidly by proton transfer, with 25% of the products from the second hydrate, H(3)O(+)(H(2)O)(2), forming the hydrated form of protonated DMMP. Both methylamine and triethylamine reacted exclusively by clustering. NO(+) also clustered with DMMP at about 70% of the collision rate constant. O(+) and O(2)(+) formed a variety of products in reactions with DMMP, with O(2)(+) forming the nondissociative charge transfer product about 50% of the time. On the other hand, many negative ions were less reactive, particularly, SF(5)(-), SF(6)(-), CO(3)(-), and NO(3)(-). However, F(-), O(-), and O(2)(-) all reacted rapidly to generate m/z = 109 amu anions (PO(3)C(2)H(6)(-)). In addition, product ions with m/z = 122 amu from H(2)(+) loss to form H(2)O were the dominant ions produced in the O(-) reaction. NO(2)(-) underwent a slow association reaction with DMMP at 0.4 Torr. G3(MP2) calculations of the ion energetics properties of DMMP, sarin, and soman were also performed. The calculated ionization potentials, proton affinities, and fluoride affinities were consistent with the trends in the measured kinetics and product ion branching ratios. The experimental results coupled with the calculated ion energetics helped to predict which ion chemistry would be most useful for trace detection of the actual chemical agents.