Gaurav R. Gupta¹, Ganesh R. Chaudhari², Preeti A. Tomar³, Yogesh Gaikwad⁴, Azad Rameez⁴, Girish H. Pandya⁴, Govinda P. Waghulade⁵ and Kesharsingh J. Patil^1,*

¹School of Chemical Sciences, North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon-425 001, India

²Department of Chemistry, M.J. College, Jalgaon-425 001, India

³JSPM’s Rajarshi Shahu College of Engineering, Pune-411 027, India

⁴Anacon Laboratories, Nagpur-440 001, India

⁵Department of Chemistry, D.D.N. Bhole College, Bhusawal-425 201, India

*Corresponding author: E-mail: patilkesharsingh@hotmail.com

Herein, we reported our studies related to structural elucidation and gas-phase fragmentation patterns of the imidazolium and pyridinium based ionic liquids, using a positive ion electrospray ionization triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. Ionic liquids mainly imidazolium/pyridinium/alkylammonium salts, possess properties due to which there are many applications from the point of view of green chemistry. The recorded mass spectral patterns are presented and possible pathways for fragmentations are suggested. The mass spectrum of tetrabutylammonium bromide and its fragmentation pattern is discussed since we used this compound as a template in the synthesis of ionic liquids. Our analysis also suggests possibilities of associations of ions in the form of C₂A⁺ species in vapour phase for the studied ionic liquids.

Ionic liquids, Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry, Tetrabutylammonium bromide, Triplet interactions.