Vanadium hydroxide clusters in the gas phase: bond-forming reactions of doubly-charged negative ions by SO2-promoted V-O bond activation.
The gas-phase reactivity of doubly-charged vanadium hydroxides anions with SO2 has been studied by experimental and computational methods. The obtainedresults highlight the role of sulfur dioxide in promoting unprecedented bond-forming reactions, which produce singly-charged products by breaking the VxOy skeleton or a terminal VObond.