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Elemental sulfur as a matrix for mass spectrometry of photosynthetic pigments and fullerenes
Author(s) -
Brune Daniel C.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
rapid communications in mass spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.528
H-Index - 136
eISSN - 1097-0231
pISSN - 0951-4198
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0231(19990315)13:5<384::aid-rcm496>3.0.co;2-z
Subject(s) - chemistry , sulfur , mass spectrometry , pigment , photochemistry , mass spectrum , fast atom bombardment , matrix (chemical analysis) , fragmentation (computing) , organic chemistry , chromatography , computer science , operating system
Elemental sulfur works well as a matrix for laser desorption time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry of bacteriochlorophylls and carotenoids, the major pigments in photosynthetic bacteria. Because sulfur lacks protons, pigment ionization probably involves electron, rather than proton, transfer. Fragmentation of chlorophylls that are esters of allylic alcohols occurs, but is partially suppressed when sulfur is used as a matrix. Mass spectrometry on sulfur itself shows that the most abundant positive ion is S 5 + , while the most abundant negative ion is S 3 − , indicating that light absorption causes photodissociation of S 8 rings into these products. A similar pattern was observed with red selenium, which also occurs as 8‐membered rings. Molecular masses of other hydrophobic analytes, such as fullerene compounds, can also be determined using elemental sulfur as the matrix. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.