Collisional activation, neutralisation–reionisation, and computational studies of [Ge,C,Hn]0/+, n = 2,3

The ions [Ge,C,H 2 ] + and [Ge,C,H 3 ] + , synthesised using both chemical ionisation (CI) and electron ionisation (EI), have been examined using collisional activation (CA) and neutralisation–reionisation (NR) mass spectrometry. For any method of synthesis, the connectivities Ge-CH n + (n = 2–3) are prevalent. NR experiments establish that transitions to the neutral surface from the cation surface, and vice versa, are survived by a large fraction of [Ge,C,H 2 ] + , and by a much smaller fraction of [Ge,C,H 3 ] + parent ions. The modeling of selected points on the surfaces of [Ge,C,H 2 ] +/0 reveals there is little prospect of synthesising neutral or cationic germaacetylene or germavinylidene in sufficient amounts for spectroscopic detection. A general result for all ions and neutrals is that isomer stabilities increase with an increasing number of C–H bonds, in good agreement with available thermochemical data for Ge–H versus C–H bond strengths and previous experimental results for the analogous Si systems.