A series of dicobalt hexacarbonyl complexes with charged alkyne ligands were prepared to enable the study of the Pauson–Khand reaction using ESI-MS. The hexacarbonyl complexes can be activated in the gas phase through removal of a CO ligand. The resulting pentacarbonyl ions react readily with alkenes, and no discrimination between alkenes was found for this step, indicating that alkene association is not rate determining in the ...