Abstract: The mass spectrometric characteristics of ten cyclopalladated ferrocenylimine-phosphine complexes were investigated via electrospray ionization trap mass spectrometer(ESI-MS) in a multi-stage MS full scan mode. The mass spectra were interpreted according to the fragments of these compounds and their fragmentation patterns were proposed. The results indicate that the strong [M-Cl]⁺ ion cluster was obtained in the positive mode. The positive ion produced by full scan ESI-MS_n(n=1—3) of each compound gave charac-teristic fragment ions formed via the cleavages of the C—P bond and Pd—C bond in these molecules. These characteristics can be applied further to the elucidation of fragmentation of this analogue.

Key words: Cyclopalladated ferrocence derivative, Electrospry ionization trap mass spectrometry, Fragmentation mechanism