Lithium and transition metal ions enable low energy collision-induced dissociation of polyglycols in electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry has the potential to be wi dely used as a tool for polymer structural characterization. However, the b ackbones or molecular chains of many industrial polymers including function al polyglycols are often difficult to dissociate in tandem mass spectromete rs using low energy collision-induced dissociation (CID). We present a meth od that uses Li+ and transition metal ions such as Ag+ as the cationization reagents for electrospray ionization in an ion trap mass spectrometer. It is shown that lithium and transition metal polyglycol adduct ions can be re adily fragmented with low energy CID. Comparative results from different ca tionization reagents in their abilities of producing both MS spectra and CI D spectra are shown. This method opens the possibility of using conventiona l and readily available low energy CID tandem MS to study polyglycol struct ures. (C) 2001 American Society for Mass Spectrometry.