Abstract Molecular radical cations of oxazole (1) and isoxazole (2) dissociate by losing carbon monoxide or a hydrogen atom, respectively. These fragmentations were examined by use of tandem mass spectrometry, flash vacuum pyrolysis and ab initiomolecular orbital calculations. A multi-step mechanism is proposed which incorporates these new experimental and theoretical data. The case of methylated homologues of 1 and 2 is also ...
