The ions present in flames of H
2
+O
2
+ N
2
with trace quantities of an alkaline earth M ( = Ca or Sr) added to them have been studied mass spectrometrieally. Those detected were principally MOH
+
and M
+
, the only negatively charged species being the free electron. It was established that the reaction M
+
+H
2
O = MOH
+
+H was rapid enough to be balanced everywhere in a flame. Detailed studies of (I) provided a means for measuring the concentration of hydrogen atoms at the point of sampling in the flame from observations of [M
+
]/[MOH
+
]. It proved possible to make absolute determinations of [H]. In addition, the ionization potentials of CaOH and SrOH were measured as 5.7 ± 0.3 and 5.4 ± 0.3 eV, which values are slightly less than those for the corresponding alkaline earth atoms. Hydrates of MOH
+
and M
+
were observed, but it was concluded that ion-hydration is not an important flame process in this case, but rather one associated with cooling of gases as they are sampled into the mass spectrometer. It appears that molecular ions hydrate in a two-body process, e. g. MOH
+
+ H
2
O → MOH
+
. H
2
O with a velocity constant, which is independent of temperature and approximately 1 x 10
–10
ml molecule
–1
s
–1
. Atomic ions on the other hand initially undergo hydration by a slower three-body step requiring a chaperon molecule. The first hydration energies at absolute zero for CaOH
+
and SrOH
+
were measured to be 120±20 and 109±15 kJ mol
–1
respectively. These exceed the corresponding quantities for Ca
+
and Sr
+
, which were found to be 75±16 and 60±16 kJ mol
–1
.
Electronic structure and photoassociation scheme of ultracold (MgK+) molecular ions
