Artefact interpretation in the tandem mass spectrum of the fragment ion at m/z 299 of N,N ‐bissalicylidene 1,2‐phenylenediamine

The advantages offered by the scanning facility of a multisector hybrid mass spectrometer of E 1 BE 2 qQ geometry, with software featuring an ‘experimental design’ function, are used to elucidate the origin of an artefact observed at m/z 290.8 in the linked scan spectrum at constant B/E of the m/z 299 ion of N,N ‐bissalicylidene 1,2‐phenylenediamine, when performed using a forward geometry (EB) instrument. A previously proposed explanation, whereby the artefact peak was thought to originate from a fragmentation in the first field‐free region, could not be verified by repeating the scan using an instrument of E 1 BE 2 qQ geometry, where E 1 and E 2 were linked during the scan at constant B/E. Several different scans were performed using an ‘experimental design’ scanning function, which allows analyzers to be scanned and linked by means of user‐defined relationships. Thus, a mass‐analysed ion kinetic energy (MIKE) (E2) scan, with E 1 set to a value of 0.9725E 0 , revealed a peak at a value of 0.9462E 0 which was subsequently determined to be due to an ion with a mass‐to‐charge ratio of 299, by using the quadrupole mass filter. A recently proposed graphical method, that allows the field values at which the artefact ion is transmitted to be plotted three dimensionally on a cube, illustrates that while the peak will appear in the spectrum obtained using a linked scan at constant B/E using an EB instrument, this will not be the case with an EBE geometry instrument. The EBE arrangement shows that the interference peak at m/z 290.8 appears to be the result of the transition of a higher‐mass ion within the first electrostatic sector.