18 November 2025, 10 a.m.
IOCB Prague, Lecture Hall
Abstract
Understanding reaction mechanisms is the key to developing new chemical reactions. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry has a unique dynamic range that allows the study of reaction mixture compositions, including low-abundant reactive intermediates. In the lecture, I will show several approaches to studying reaction kinetics via mass spectrometry coupling with flow-chemistry or batch-chemistry setups.[1-3]
Monitoring the kinetics associated with the reactive intermediates opens a way to understand the effects of catalysts and other reaction mixture components on forming products and by-products. One of the rising fields in catalysis is electrocatalysis. However, processes at the electrodes are extremely difficult to study. However, electron transfer processes usually generate charged species; therefore, mass spectrometry can be an ideal tool to study these processes, provided we have an efficient way of transferring the generated species to a mass spectrometer. I will present our solution, allowing us to study the electrochemically generated intermediates and evaluate their kinetics at an electrode.[5,6] We also couple the setup with cryogenic ion spectroscopy and study the structure of the reactive intermediates by vibrational and electronic spectroscopy.[4]
Reference
- J. Mehara, J. Roithova, Identifying reactive intermediates by mass spectrometry, Chem. Sci. 11 (2020) 11960.
- G. L. Tripodi et al., Tracking Reaction Pathways by a Modular Flow Reactor Coupled to Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry, Chem. Methods 1 (2021) 430.
- J. Mehara et al., Competing Mechanisms in Palladium-Catalyzed Alkoxycarbonylation of Styrene, ACS Catal. 14 (2024) 5710.
- J. Roithová et al., Helium Tagging Infrared Photodissociation Spectroscopy of Reactive Ions, Acc. Chem. Res. 49 (2016) 223.
- A. Bairagi et al., Electrocatalytic CO2 Reduction: Monitoring of Catalytically Active, Downgraded, and Upgraded Cobalt Complexes, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 146 (2024), 5480.
- A. Koovakattil Surendran et al., Intricacies of Mass Transport during Electrocatalysis: A Journey through Iron Porphyrin-Catalyzed Oxygen Reduction, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 146 (2024), 15619.