Proton transfer as a first step in ion-molecule reactions of diethyl ether and tetrahydrofuran

Abstract

Mechanisms may be written for several of the ion-molecule reactions in tetrahydrofuran and diethyl ether for which the first step is protonation to give the ion (M+l)⁺. This hypothesis was tested inan ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer by double-resonance experiments on mixtures of each of the ethers with methane. It was shown that CH₅+ is a precursor for the tetrahydrofuran reactions,but not, with one exception, for the diethyl ether reactions.