Investigating the Gas-phase interactions of Imidazolium Ionic Liquids with the reactants and products of a Diels-Alder reaction.

The Diels-Alder reaction between cyclopentadiene and methyl acrylate leads to both endo- and exo-methyl bicyclo-[2.2.1]-hept-5-ene-2-carboxylate and it has been shown that in the liquid crystal phase of some imidazolium ionic liquids, the endo-isomer can be favoured. A study was, therefore, carried out using mass spectrometry methods and computational science to investigate possible preferential binding of one isomer or the other to the imidazolium cation in order to understand the selectivity better.