Soft-Landing of CoIII(salen)+ and MnIII(salen)+ on Self-Assembled Monolayer Surfaces

Soft-landing of mass-selected Co-III(salen)(+) and Mn-III(salen)(+) complexes [salon = N,N'-ethylenebis(salicylide-neaminato)] was performed using self-assembled monolayer surfaces of alkanethiol (HSAM) and fluorinated alkanethiol (FSAM) oil gold as targets. Physical processes associated with ion deposition were studied using tithe-resolved in situ secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) in a specially designed Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer (FT-ICR MS). We demonstrate charge retention by a significant fraction of precursor ions on the FSAM and complete neutralisation on the HSAM Surface. Our results indicate efficient electron transfer froth gold to the deposited species for the HSAM surface and inefficient, if ally, electron transfer oil the FSAM Surface. Formation of abundant cluster ions observed in SIMS spectra is attributed to gas-phase reactions ill the SIMS plume. Detailed analysis allowed us to extract the kinetics of both ionic and neutral complexes trapped on the FSAM Surface. The results indicate that neutralisation on this surface most likely takes place on the defect sites.