“…These experiments have been conducted using various types of mass spectrometers, including ion cyclotron resonance spectrometers, simple beam instruments, multiple sector or quadrupole configurations, quadrupole ion traps and hybrid instruments (that combine different mass analyzers) . Metal ions have been generated through electron ionization of volatile organometallic compounds (e.g., iron pentacarbonyl), laser ablation of metal targets, and, more recently, through ion evaporation from solutions of suitable composition using electrospray ionization (ESI) . In addition to the exploration of intrinsic chemical properties, metal ions have also found utility in analytical applications like liquid chromatography (LC) as ionizing reagents for compounds that are insufficiently basic to be protonated under typical LC/ESI‐MS conditions, or in cases where protonation leads to undesirable dissociation reactions.…”