Transient intermediates of chemical reactions by neutralization-reionization mass spectrometry

Neutralization-reionization mass spectrometry (NRMS) is a powerful method for the generation of highly reactive molecules, radicals, biradicals, ylids, and organometallics in the gas phase. This chapter brings a brief overview of recent instrumentation developments and discusses the chemical properties of several transient intermediates of relevance to inorganic, organic, and organometallic chemistry and biochemistry. Enols, organic and inorganic acids, carbenes, carbon clusters, heterocumulenes and related unsaturated molecules, and ylids are some of the closed-shell molecules that were generated and studied by NRMS. Hypervalent radicals, oxygenated boron, nitrogen, silicon, phosphorus, and sulfur radicals, heterocyclic and nucleobase radicals, and amide radicals are examples of open shell systems that have been successfully addressed by NRMS.