Mass Spectrometric Observation of Polymers of Carbon Dioxide in a Molecular Beam System

Abstract
The operation of a mass spectrometer equipped with a molecular beam gas sampling system is described. Polymeric ions, (CO2)n+ where n varies from two to twelve, are observed when sampling CO2 at 1 to 6.5 atm; similar polymers are found in SO2 and N2O. A possible explanation is advanced in terms of isentropic expansion in the sampling process and subsequent condensation.