Open AccessFormation and emission of tetraalkylammonium salt molecular ions sputtered from a gelatin matrix
Author(s) -
Joe Bennett,
Greg Gillen
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of the american society for mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.961
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1879-1123
pISSN - 1044-0305
DOI - 10.1016/1044-0305(93)80018-t
Subject(s) - chemistry , counterion , gelatin , salt (chemistry) , ion , desorption , matrix (chemical analysis) , ionization , analytical chemistry (journal) , inorganic chemistry , mass spectrometry , chromatography , adsorption , organic chemistry
A gelatin matrix was simultaneously doped with nine equimolar, homologous, tetraalkylammonium salts ranging in mass from 210 to 770 Da. Bombardment of the sample with kiloelectronvolt ions resulted in a nonidentical distribution of relative cation intensities with a maximum at m/z 242 for samples with a total salt concentration of 0.004 g of salt/g of gelatin. A rapid increase in relative intensities with increasing mass is observed for the low mass salts and is believed to be linked to changes in the ionization efficiencies. The changes in ionization efficiencies are likely related to decreasing coulombic attractive forces between the organic cation and the counterion. Disappearance cross sections, determined from decay curves, indicate that sputter-induced damage increases with increasing mass of the cation. Fragment-to-intact cation ratios also suggest that damage accumulates fastest in the heaviest salts. These observations indicate that desorption yields of the organic salts in a gelatin matrix decrease with increasing mass. In addition, suppression of lower mass tetraalkylammonium salt intact cation intensities was observed for salt-in-gelatin concentrations greater than 10(-3) g/g.