Gas-phase reactions of atomic lanthanide cations with D2O: room-temperature kinetics and periodicity in reactivity.

Reactions of atomic lanthanide cations (excluding Pm+) with D2O have been surveyed in the gas phase using an inductively coupled plasma/selected-ion flow tube (ICP/SIFT) tandem mass spectrometer to measure rate coefficients and product distributions in He at 0.35+/-0.01 Torr and 295+/-2 K. Primary reaction channels were observed corresponding to O-atom transfer, OD transfer and D2O addition. O-atom transfer is the predominant reaction channel and occurs exclusively with Ce+, Nd+, Sm+, Gd+, Tb+ and Lu+. OD transfer is observed exclusively with Yb+, and competes with O-atom transfer in the reactions with La+ and Pr+. Slow D2O addition is observed with early lanthanide cation Eu+ and the late lanthanide cations Dy+, Ho+, Er+ and Tm+. Higher-order sequential D2O addition of up to five D2O molecules is observed with LnO+ and LnOD+. A delay of more than 50 kcal mol(-1) is observed in the onset of efficient exothermic O-atom transfer, which suggests the presence of kinetic barriers of perhaps this magnitude in the exothermic O-atom transfer reactions of Dy+, Ho+, Er) and Tm+ with D2O. The reaction efficiency for O-atom transfer is seen to decrease as the energy required to promote an electron to make two non-f electrons available for bonding increases. The periodic trend in reaction efficiency along the lanthanide series matches the periodic trend in the electron-promotion energy required to achieve a d1s1 or d2 excited electronic configuration in the lanthanide cation, and also the periodic trends across the lanthanide row reported previously for several alcohols and phenol. An Arrhenius-like correlation is also observed for the dependence of D2O reactivity on promotion energy for early lanthanide cations, and exhibits a characteristic temperature of 2600 K.