Hydrogen scrambling in the long‐lived protonated benzene ion generated from benzyl amine in the i.c.r. spectrometer

Abstract
It is shown by reactions with various bases in an i.c.r. cell that an almost complete H‐D randomization takes place in the gaseous and long‐lived [C6H2D5]+ ion, generated from C6D5CD2NH2 by electron impact, but not in its precursor ions. This follows from the ratio of [H]+ vs [D]+ transfer to bases, obtained from double resonance signals. The ratio appears to be reliable only if the protonated (deuterated) base is stable and does not undergo unimolecular decompositions.