Elusive Reaction Intermediates in Solution Explored by ESI-MS: Reverse Periscope for Mechanistic Investigations

Abstract

Just as periscopes allow a submarine to visually search for objects above the surface of the sea, in a reversed periscope fashion electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) can analyze the compounds at the gas phase/liquid phase interface for chemical entities which may exist in solution. The challenge is the identification and structural characterization of key elusive reaction intermediates in chemical transformations, intermediates which are able to explain how chemical processes occur. This Minireview summarizes recent selected publications on the use of ESI-MS techniques for studying solution intermediates of homogeneous chemical reactions.

Keywords: analytical methods; homogeneous catalysis; mass spectrometry; multicomponent reactions; reaction mechanisms.