Energetic considerations in the assignment of some fragment ion structures

Abstract

Based on energetic considerations, new structures are presented for fragment ions from phenol, aniline, the naphthols, and coumarin. Previously proposed structures are shown to be inconsistent with the energetics of formation of the ions. Some deficiencies in the methods of assigning structures to fragment ions both by comparison with the mass spectra of related compounds and by consideration of the reactions of metastable ions of the same composition are discussed.