ELECTRON-IMPACT STUDIES OF ORGANOMETALLIC MOLECULES .X. SOME SIMPLE TRANSITION METAL FLUOROCARBON COMPLEXES

The mass spectra of several fluoroalkyl, fluoroalkenyl and fluoroacyl complexes of manganese, rhenium, iron and ruthenium carbonyls are described. After loss of carbonyl groups, fluoroalkyl compounds eliminate an olefin, with formation of metal halide species. A trifluorovinyl complex shows a novel elimination of a carbon atom to give an ion postulated to be a difluorocarbene‐metal fluoride; the occurrence of difluorocarbene‐metal ions in the spectra of some related complexes is also discussed. The spectra of the acyl complexes show little evidence of elimination of the acyl carbonyl group; the major process is fission of the CORf bond with loss of a fluoroalkyl radical and formation of the cationic metal carbonyl, e.g. π‐C5H5M(CO)3+ (M  Fe or Ru). The relevance of thermal or photochemical model reactions to processes occurring in the mass spectrometer is discussed. Copyright © 1969 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.