Cone-voltage fragmentation

The Use of Cone-Voltage Fragmentation in Conjunction with High-Accuracy Mass Measurements and LC-MS for Metabolite Identification... 

Electrospray is a soft-ionization method prodncing intact molecular species and structural information is not usually available. Electrospray sources are capable of producing structural information from cone-voltage fragmentation but these spectra are not always easily interpretable. Experimentally, the best solution is to use a mass spectrometer capable of MS-MS operation but this has not inconsequential financial implications. 

In addition to the formation of these ions of direct analytical utility, APCI leads to the formation of ion clusters involving solvent molecules. Since these tend to make interpretation more difficult, they need to be removed and this may be accomplished either by the use of a curtain gas or by cone-voltage fragmentation (see Section 4.7.4 above) which is also applicable to APCI. 

Structural information is not usually available unless cone-voltage fragmentation or MS-MS is used. 

To understand the circumstances in which particular features of mass spectrometry, such as high-resolution measurements, MS-MS and cone-voltage fragmentation, selected-ion monitoring and selected-decomposition monitoring, may be nsed to address particular analytical problems. 

What is meant by the term cone-voltage fragmentation and what information may it provide ... 

The use of cone-voltage fragmentation (CVF) to obtain structural information was discussed earlier in Section 4.7.4 and the comment was made there that because this has the potential to bring about fragmentation of aU ions in the source of the mass spectrometer the spectra were often difficult to interpret. When the analyte under consideration is of a low molecular weight, its spectrum is likely to consist only of a few ions and CVF is of more practical value. 

Cone-voltage fragmentation Fragmentation of ions, commonly produced by APCl or electrospray ionization, effected by the application of a voltage within the source of the mass spectrometer. 

Fragmentor voltage Another term for cone-voltage fragmentation. 

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