Abstract
Thermal reactions of the CF32+ dication with argon lead to the formation of an ArCF22+ dication, a new type of metastable species with an argon carbon bond. None of the other rare gases undergo a similar reaction with CF32+.
For the lighter rare gases (He and Ne), no reactions with CF32+ other than those due to electronically excited reactant ions are observed, whereas for the heavier rare gases (Kr and Xe), the prevailing reactive pathways involve single-electron transfer. At elevated collision energies, single-electron transfer predominates for collisions with all rare gases (He-Xe).