University of California at Riverside. He uses three experimental techniques to study organic reactions in the gas phase: collection of the neutral reaction products from a specially designed Electron Bombardment Flow reactor which produces gaseous ions, transmutation of C-bonded tritium to give carbonium ions and 3He, and mass spectroscopy. Five types of experiments illustrate the scope of the chemistry: cyclization of omega-alkenyl cations, rearrangements of hydroxylated carbocations, reduction of gaseous carbonyl compounds promoted by trimethylsilyl cations, production of alkyl cations via the deposition of T+ onto ether oxygens, and changes in the neutral tritiated products on going from a high pressure gas to a supercritical fluid.
Dr. Morton's work uses a unique Electron Bombardment Flow reactor in which an electron beam is passed down the center of a low pressure reaction vessel enclosed in a solenoid electromagnet. With it, he is able to trap and analyze the neutral (uncharged) molecular products of gas phase reactions, as well as the charged particles produced by electron collisions. Charged particles can also be produced by beta-decay of tritiated molecules. With these methods, Dr. Morton is able to study the details of some important types of organic reactions, and to develop new instrumental approaches for analyzing the structures of neutrals from labeled reactants and their isotopic distributions.
