The Surprising Dynamics of the McLafferty Rearrangement

We report femtosecond time-resolved measurements of the McLafferty rearrangement following the strong-field tunnel ionization of 2-pentanone, 4-methyl-2-pentanone, and 4,4dimethyl-2-pentanone. The pump-probe-dependent yields of the McLafferty product ion are fit to a biexponential function with fast (similar to 100 fs) and slow (similar to 10 ps) time constants, the latter of which is faster for the latter two compounds. Following nearly instantaneous ionization, the fast time scale is associated with rotation of the molecule to a six-membered cyclic intermediate that facilitates transfer of the gamma-hydrogen, while the similar to 50-100 times longer time scale is associated with a pi-bond rearrangement and bond cleavage between the alpha- and beta-carbons to produce the enol cation. These experimental measurements are supported by ab initio molecular dynamics trajectories, which further confirm the time scale of this important stepwise reaction in mass spectrometry.