Different isomers of the CHCl2+ dications were studied using infrared predissociation spectroscopy with helium and neon tagging in a low-temperature trapping experiment. It is shown that H-C-Cl2+ isomers form the dominant portion of the trapped dications that were detected by IRPD spectroscopy.
Other possible isomers, such as H-Cl-C2+, are depleted by a proton transfer reaction with the helium buffer gas but by using neon tagging it was possible to stabilize the neon complexes of H-Cl-C2+ and detect them in the IRPD experiment. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.