Mass Spectrometric Studies of Physical, Thermochemical and Reactive Properties of Xenon Fluorides, Xenon Oxides and Xenon Oxyfluorides

Abstract

Using a reactor with a flowing diffusion cloud coupled to a high-resolution, low-energy electron-impact ionization mass spectrometer, mechanistic, kinetic and thermochemical characteristics of gas-phase reactions with the participation of charged and neutral xenon oxides, xenon fluorides and xenon oxyfluorides have been investigated. Ionization energies for XeF, XeF2, XeF4, XeO3, XeO4, XeOF4 molecules and appearance energies for the ions formed from these molecules were obtained. Based on experimental and reference data, the enthalpies of XeO3 and XeOF4 formation were refined and a number of binding energies in the parent and fragment ions were calculated. For electron-impact ionization, the ionization cross-sections for Xe, XeF2, XeF4 and XeOF4 proved to correlate with a semi-empirical principle of full ionization. Based on the temperature dependencies of saturated vapor pressures for XeO4, XeOF4 and XeO2F2, their enthalpies of evaporation, sublimation and melting were determined. The mechanisms of gas-phase reactions between H atoms and neutral XeF2, XeF4, XeF6, XeO4 and XeOF4 were studied.