Abstract This review discusses the recent developments in our understanding of the electron transfer and bond-forming reactions of small atomic and molecular dications in the gas-phase. A summary of the properties of isolated dications is presented, followed by a review of the major experimental techniques used to probe dicationic reactivity. Electron transfer reactions of dications with neutral species are then discussed, including recent rationalisations of this class of reactivity using simple electrostatic models. Our current understanding of the reactions of dications with neutral atoms and molecules which result in the formation of new chemical bonds is then presented. This part of the account is built around three case studies, including some new results on the bond-forming reactions of with CH4. Moving beyond dicationic species, the account then discusses recent results concerning the bond-forming reactivity of tricationic atoms and small molecules. This section includes the mechanistic conclusions drawn from the first results involving the coincident detection of all three positively charged species generated from the reaction of a molecular trication: + O2 → SO+ + CS+ + O+. The review concludes with some thoughts concerning the future development of the field.

中文翻译：

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气相中原子和小分子的双分子反应

摘要 本综述讨论了我们对气相中小原子和分子标记的电子转移和键形成反应的理解的最新进展。概述了孤立的 dications 的特性，然后回顾了用于探测 dicationic 反应性的主要实验技术。然后讨论了 dications 与中性物种的电子转移反应，包括最近使用简单静电模型对此类反应性的合理化。然后介绍了我们目前对 dications 与中性原子和分子的反应导致新化学键形成的理解。帐户的这一部分围绕三个案例研究建立，包括一些关于与 CH4 形成键的反应的新结果。超越双语种，然后，该帐户讨论了最近关于三阳离子原子和小分子的成键反应性的结果。本节包括从第一个结果得出的机械结论，这些结果涉及同时检测由分子三化反应生成的所有三种带正电荷的物质：+ O2 → SO+ + CS+ + O+。回顾总结了对该领域未来发展的一些想法。