Metastable and collision‐induced fragmentation of selected C3H6S+· isomers; evidence for extensive isomerization

Abstract The metastable ion (MI) and collision‐induced dissociation (CID) mass spectra of five C 3 H 6 S +· isomers were examined. The MI mass spectra were virtually identical, which suggests that C 3 H 6 S +· ions having a substantial amount of internal energy can freely interconvert and isomerize into a common structure prior to fragmentation. However, the CID mass spectra are distinctly different and the differences can be related to the structure of the C 3 H 6 S +· isomers. It was even possible to distinguish the distonic ion H 2 CCH 2 SCH 2 +· from its conventional counterpart magnified image . The smaller amount of internal energy of the ions probed in CID experiments obviously limits isomerization.