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Factors affecting the ionization efficiency of quaternary ammonium compounds in electrospray/ionspray mass spectrometry
Author(s) -
Raffaelli Andrea,
Bruins Andries P.
Publication year - 1991
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/rcm.1290050605
Subject(s) - chemistry , mass spectrometry , electrospray ionization , chromatography , electrospray mass spectrometry , electrospray , ammonium , organic chemistry
A series of quaternary ammonium salts was analysed by the ionspray technique under different conditions in order to study the influence of some important factors on the ionization efficiency, The factors taken into account were droplet charging, sample ion, counter ion, solovent composition, and concentration. Measurement of the spray current leaving the nebulizer has shown that the spray current increases linearly with sample concentration up to at least 50 pmol/μL. The measured spray current is approximately 30% of the calcualated current corresponding to a given concentration of quaternary ammonium ions in solution leaving the nebulizer at a given flow rate. The results obtained show that tetraakylammonium salt give the best sensitivitly with no influence of sample‐ion shape or counter ion. The dynamic range for full‐scan mass spectra of the compounds studied appears to the linear for concentrations from 0.1 pmol/μL (10 −7 M) up to 10 pmol/μL (10 −5 M).