Mass Spectrometric Studies of Silver Complexes with a Pyridine Dicarboxamide Ligand: Interconversion of Ag(I) and Ag(III) Oxidation States in the Gas Phase

Abstract

Electrospray ionization (ESI) enables the detection of highly unstable silver(III) complexes prepared in situ from the dicarboxamide ligand L (where L = N,N′-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)-2,6-pyridinedicarboxamide) and Ag(CH3COO). The collision-induced dissociation of [AgIII(L–H)(CH3COO)]+ leads to the elimination of oxiranone. As well as the silver(III) complexes, various other silver(I) complexes generated in the positive as well as negative ionization mode were investigated.