All rights reserved EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF MASS SPECTROMETRY Ion thermochemistry is a fundamental topic in ion chemistry and, as such, has been the topic of continuing interest since the early days of mass spectrometry. 1-3 Thermodynamic properties such as proton affinity, 4,5 metal ion affinity, 6,7 alkyl cation affinity 8,9 and electron affinity 10,11 have been explored by a variety of experimental and theoretical techniques. The most reliable are equilibrium methods, such as high-pressure mass spectrometry, which can directly yield the desired thermodynamic property of a molecule. Kinetics experiments performed under thermal conditions 12 can also produce reliable results, but these must be interpreted with great care. This is because such experiments directly measure the activation energy of a reaction which may, or may not, be the same as a reaction enthalpy due to the presence of a potential reverse energy barrier in the dissociation reaction. However, when these thermal experiments are not feasible, the "kinetic method," 13 as introduced by Cooks and Kruger in 1977 can, with care, produce reliable thermodynamic data. At