The Mass Spectra of Alkylindoles

Abstract

The mass spectra of 11 alkylindoles have been obtained Correlations between their structures and mass spectra are given and peaks characteristic of alkylindoles are discussed. The major fragmentation mode corresponds to cleavage of bonds β to the ring system, certain re-arrangement ions can be shown to be formed in a two-stage fragmentation process, the first stage involving β-bond cleavage and the second loss of the stable neutral fragment HCN. The stabilities of the fragment ions formed is suggested to add drive to some of the fragmentation processes observed and the possible structures of some of the ions are discussed.