The collision energy or collision voltage necessary to obtain 50% fragmentation (characteristic collision energy/voltage, CCE or CCV) has been systematically determined for different types of molecules [poly(ethylene glycols) (PEG), poly(tetrahydrofuran) (PTHF), and peptides] over a wide mass (degrees of freedom) range. In the case of lithium-cationized PEGs a clear linear correlation (R(2) > 0.996) has been found between CCE and precursor ion mass on various instrument types up to 4.5 kDa. A similar linear correlation was observed between CCV and the mass-to-charge ratio. For singly and multiply charged polymers studied under a variety of experimental conditions and on several instruments, all data were plotted together and showed correlation coefficient R(2) = 0.991. A prerequisite to observe such a good linear correlation is that the energy and entropy of activation in a class of polymers is likely to remain constant. When compounds of different structure are compared, the CCV will depend not only on the molecular mass but the activation energy and entropy as well. This finding has both theoretical and practical importance. From a theoretical point of view it suggests fast energy randomization up to at least 4.5 kDa so that statistical rate theories are applicable in this range. These results also suggest an easy method for instrument tuning for high-throughput structural characterization through tandem MS: after a standard compound is measured, the optimum excitation voltage is in a simple proportion with the mass of any structurally similar analyte at constant experimental conditions.

A new data mining method is proposed for the determination of the copolymer composition from moderate/low resolution complex mass spectra. The Mass-remainder analysis (MARA) does not require a "Kendrick-like" transformation to a new mass scale, it is simply based on the calculation of the remainder after dividing by the exact mass of one of the repeat units of the copolymer (e.g., B of an A/B copolymer). Plotting the remainder of this division (MR) versus m/ z the homologous series differing only by a number of base units (e.g., B unit) can be visualized. The number of A units ( n) and subsequently n is assigned to the m/ z peaks using the bijective n, MR mapping. Simultaneously, our algorithm removes the isotopes from the peak list. However, the intensities of the monoisotopes are increased to the value corresponding, approximately, to the total intensity of their isotope peaks. The correction of the mass spectral peak intensities enables the accurate calculation of the usual polymer and copolymer quantities: the molecular weight-average, the number-averaged molecular weight of A and B units, the composition drift, or the bivariate distribution, among others. Our Mass-remainder analysis method was demonstrated by the analysis of various ethylene oxide/propylene oxide copolymers.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic/ tandem mass spectrometric method was developed for the determination of the major bioactive flavonolignans in silymarin, a herbal remedy extracted from the milk thistle Silybum marianum. In this study, eight active components of silymarin with the same elemental composition, including silychristins A and B, silydianin, silybin A and B, isosilybin A and B and an unknown compound were completely separated. Furthermore, three additional components were detected and partly separated; presumably two silybin stereoisomers and one isosilybin stereoisomer. The collision-induced dissociation (CID) MS/MS spectra of these silymarin constituents were studied: the spectral similarity values of the component pairs were determined, and simple criteria were found for distinguishing the components.Keywords High-performance liquid chromatography Á Tandem mass spectrometry Á Milk thistle Á Silymarin Á Silybin Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (

Residues of chemicals on clothing products were examined by direct analysis in real-time (DART) mass spectrometry. Our experiments have revealed the presence of more than 40 chemicals in 15 different clothing items. The identification was confirmed by DART tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) experiments for 14 compounds. The most commonly detected hazardous substances were nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPEs), phthalic acid esters (phthalates), amines released by azo dyes, and quinoline derivates. DART-MS was able to detect NPEs on the skin of the person wearing the clothing item contaminated by NPE residuals. Automated data acquisition and processing method was developed and tested for the recognition of NPE residues thereby reducing the analysis time.

The fragmentation properties of singly and doubly lithiated polytetrahydrofuran (PTHF) were studied using energy-dependent collision-induced dissociation. The product ion spectrum of [PTHF ϩ Li] ϩ showed the formation of three different series corresponding to product ions with hydroxyl, aldehyde and vinyl end-groups. Interestingly, besides these series, two additional, non-lithiated product ions C 4 H 9 O ϩ and C 4 H 7 ϩ were identified in the MS/MS spectra. The MS/MS of the doubly lithiated PTHF () with a number of repeat units ranging from 8 to 27 showed the formation of product ions similar to those of the singly lithiated series, however, doubly lithiated product ions and product ions formed by the loss of one Li ϩ -ion from the precursor ion also appeared with significant abundances. Analysis of the breakdown curves for the singly and doubly charged PTHF indicated that the series A ions are formed most probably together with the series B ions, while members of the series C ions appeared at significantly higher collision energies. The fragmentation properties of [PTHF ϩ Li] ϩ and [PTHF ϩ 2Li] 2ϩ were also interpreted using the survival yield method. It was found that the collision energy/voltage necessary to obtain 50% fragmentation (CV 50 ) was dependent linearly on the number of the repeat units, i.e., on the size, or the number of degrees of freedom

The kinetics of the uncatalyzed reaction of an industrially important 50/50 blend of isomers of 4,4′‐diphenylmethane‐diisocyanate (4,4‐MDI) and 2,4′‐diphenylmethane‐diisocyanate (2,4′‐MDI) with primary and secondary alcohols was studied using high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled with photodiode array detector. The alcohols such as 1‐propanol, 2‐propanol, 1‐hexanol, 2‐hexanol, 3‐hexanol, 1‐methoxy‐2‐propanol, and 3‐methoxy‐1‐propanol were used in high molar excess to diisocyanate in toluene at 80°C, and pseudo–first‐order dependences on the concentrations of 4,4′‐MDI and 2,4′‐MDI were found. Appropriate treatments of the kinetic data allowed us to determine the corresponding pseudo–first‐order rate constants. According to the kinetic results, the reactivity of the isocyanate group in the para‐position is about four to six times higher than that of the ortho‐positioned isocyanate group, depending on the reacting alcohol. Furthermore, the substitution effect, i.e., change in the reactivity of the free isocyanate group after the other has been reacted, was found for both 4,4′‐MDI and 2,4′‐MDI isomers. The differences in the reactivities of the isocyanate groups of 2,4′‐MDI and 4,4′‐MDI isomers before and after one of two isocyanate groups has been reacted are explained in terms of partial positive charges on the corresponding carbonyl carbon atom calculated by high‐level quantum chemical calculations. In addition, the UV‐spectral properties of the products obtained by quenching the reaction mixture with methanol are also discussed in light of practical implications.

A simple collision model for multiple collisions occurring in quadrupole type mass spectrometers was derived and tested with leucine enkaphalin a common mass spectrometric standard with well-characterized properties. Implementation of the collision model and Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus (RRKM) algorithm into a spreadsheet software allowed a good fitting of the calculated data to the experimental survival yield (SY) versus collision energy curve. In addition, fitting also ensured to estimate the efficiencies of the kinetic to internal energy conversion for Leucine enkephalin in quadrupole-time-of-flight and triple quadrupole instruments. It was observed that the experimental SY versus collision energy curves for the leucine enkephalin can be described by the Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel (RRK) formalism by reducing the total degrees of freedom (DOF) to about one-fifth. Furthermore, this collision model with the RRK formalism was used to estimate the critical energy (E(o)) of lithiated polyethers, including polyethylene glycol (PEG), polypropylene glycol (PPG), and polytetrahydrofurane (PTHF) with degrees of freedom similar to that of leucine enkephalin. Applying polyethers with similar DOF provided the elimination of the effect of DOF on the unimolecular reaction rate constant. The estimated value of E(o) for PEG showed a relatively good agreement with the value calculated by high-level quantum chemical calculations reported in the literature. Interestingly, it was also found that the E(o) values for the studied polyethers were similar.

It was found that the collision energy/voltage necessary to obtain 50% fragmentation (CV 50 ) was linearly dependent on the molecular weight of phthalic acid esters (PAEs). Based on this observation a fast screening technique for the detection of PAEs in Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) samples was developed using Direct Analysis in Real Time (DART) ionization tandem mass spectrometry. Based on this observation an automated data acquisition method, including mass-dependent tuning of the collision energy/voltage in DART-MS/MS, was developed thereby reducing the analysis time.