Bond Energies of Small Transition Metal Cation Clusters

A new experimental apparatus has been constructed for photodissociation spectroscopy of transition metal-containing cations. redissociation thresholds for Co 2 + , Co 3 + , and Ti 2 + have been observed and values of 2.765 ± 0.001 eV, 2.086 ± 0.002 eV, and 2.435 ± 0.002 eV, respectively, have been determined for the bond energies for these species. These are in good agreement with results obtained by collision-induced dissociation (CID) experiments. Comparison of bond strengths obtained from the observation of predissociation thresholds with those obtained by non-optical methods, such as collision-induced dissociation and Knudsen cell mass spectrometry, have allowed criteria for the interpretation of a pre-dissociation threshold as a bond strength to be developed.