Tandem mass spectrometry compounds

Simultaneous analysis of neutral and acidic pharmaceuticals as well as related compounds by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry in wastewater. Talanta 73 314-320... 

Hvattum, E., Determination of phenolic compounds in rose hip (Rosa canina) using liquid chromatography coupled to electrospray ionisation tandem mass spectrometry and diode-array detection, Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom., 16, 655, 2002. 

Specifically for triazines in water, multi-residue methods incorporating SPE and LC/MS/MS will soon be available that are capable of measuring numerous parent compounds and all their relevant degradates (including the hydroxytriazines) in one analysis. Continued increases in liquid chromatography/atmospheric pressure ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC/API-MS/MS) sensitivity will lead to methods requiring no aqueous sample preparation at all, and portions of water samples will be injected directly into the LC column. The use of SPE and GC or LC coupled with MS and MS/MS systems will also be applied routinely to the analysis of more complex sample matrices such as soil and crop and animal tissues. However, the analyte(s) must first be removed from the sample matrix, and additional research is needed to develop more efficient extraction procedures. Increased selectivity during extraction also simplifies the sample purification requirements prior to injection. Certainly, miniaturization of all aspects of the analysis (sample extraction, purification, and instrumentation) will continue, and some of this may involve SEE, subcritical and microwave extraction, sonication, others or even combinations of these techniques for the initial isolation of the analyte(s) from the bulk of the sample matrix. 

More recently, liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) and liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) have been evaluated as possible alternative methods for carfentrazone-ethyl compounds in crop matrices. The LC/MS methods allow the chemical derivatization step for the acid metabolites to be avoided, reducing the analysis time. These new methods provide excellent sensitivity and method recovery for carfentrazone-ethyl. However, the final sample extracts, after being cleaned up extensively using three SPE cartridges, still exhibited ionization suppression due to the matrix background for the acid metabolites. Acceptable method recoveries (70-120%) of carfentrazone-ethyl metabolites have not yet been obtained. 

The most widely regarded approach to accomplish the determination of as many pesticides as possible in as few steps as possible is to use MS detection. MS is considered a universally selective detection method because MS detects all compounds independently of elemental composition and further separates the signal into mass spectral scans to provide a high degree of selectivity. Unlike GC with selective detectors, or even atomic emission detection (AED), GC/MS may provide acceptable confirmation of the identity of analytes without the need for further information. This reduces the need to re-inject a sample into a separate GC system (usually GC/MS) for pesticide confirmation. Through the use of selected ion monitoring (SIM), efficient ion-trap or quadrupole devices, and/or tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), modern GC/MS instruments provide LODs similar to or lower than those of selective detectors, depending on the analytes, methods, and detectors. 

Ethylenethiourea (ETU) is a toxic decomposition product/metabolite of alky-lenebis(dithiocarbamates). This compound could be generated during processing of treated crops at elevated temperature. Different chromatographic methods to determine the residue levels of ETU have been published. After extraction with methanol, clean-up on a Gas-Chrom S/alumina column and derivatization (alkylation) with bro-mobutane, ETU residues can be determined by GC with a flame photometric detector in the sulfur mode. Alternatively, ETU residues can also be determined by an HPLC method with UV detection at 240 nm or by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) or liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) (molecular ion m/z 103). ... 

Principles and Characteristics Analytical multistage mass spectrometry (MSn) relies on the ability to activate and dissociate ions generated in the ion source in order to identify or obtain structural information about an unknown compound and to analyse mixtures by exploiting two or more mass-separating steps. A basic instrument for the currently most used form, tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS), consists of a combination of two mass analysers with a reaction region between them. While a variety of instrument set-ups can be used in MS/MS, there is a single basic concept involved the measurement of the m/z of ions before and after a reaction in the mass spectrometer the reaction involves a change in mass and can be represented as ... 

Hsieh Y. et al., 2000. Direct analysis of plasma samples for drug discovery compounds using mixed-function column liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Rapid Commun Mass Spectrom 14 1384. 

Hsieh Y. et al., 2003. Direct plasma analysis of drug compounds using monolithic column liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry. Anal Chem 75 1812. 

No tandem MS experiment can be successful if the precursor ions fail to fragment (at the right time and place). The ion activation step is crucial to the experiment and ultimately defines what types of products result. Hence, the ion activation method that is appropriate for a specific application depends on the MS instrument configuration as well as on the analyzed compounds and the structural information that is wanted. Various, more or less complementary, ion activation methods have been developed during the history of tandem MS. Below we give brief descriptions of several of these approaches. A more detailed description of peptide fragmentation mles and nomenclature is provided in Chapter 2. An excellent review of ion activation methods for tandem mass spectrometry is written by Sleno and Volmer, see Reference 12, and for a more detailed review on slow heating methods in tandem MS, see Reference 13. 

Tandem mass spectrometry (see Chapter 3) can be applied to structural studies of various types of compounds, provided their molecular weights do not exceed approximately 2 to 4 kDa (there are also ways to analyze the sequence of larger molecules (proteins) by MS in the top-down strategy—see Figs. 6.2 and 6.3). In general, the larger... 

An intramolecular cyclization of a tetrazole-containing nucleoside 64 has been observed by Chu and co-workers <1997JOC7267> (cf. other properties of this compound in Table 3). These authors reported that the 3-OH group on the arabinofuranose ring participates in an addition reaction at position 7 of the tetrazolo[l,5-c]pyrimidine ring to form 65 which is a dihydro derivative of the parent heterocycle. The final structure elucidation has been carried out with the help of the tricyclic tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) fragment 66. 

Fig. 11.16. Representation of three tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) scan modes illustrated for a triple quadrupole instrument configuration. The top panel shows the attributes of the popular and prevalent product ion CID experiment. The first mass filter is held at a constant m/z value transmitting only ions of a single mlz value into the collision region. Conversion of a portion of translational energy into internal energy in the collision event results in excitation of the mass-selected ions, followed by unimolecular dissociation. The spectrum of product ions is recorded by scanning the second mass filter (commonly referred to as Q3 ). The center panel illustrates the precursor ion CID experiment. Ions of all mlz values are transmitted sequentially into the collision region as the first analyzer (Ql) is scanned. Only dissociation processes that generate product ions of a specific mlz ratio are transmitted by Q3 to the detector. The lower panel shows the constant neutral loss CID experiment. Both mass analyzers are scanned simultaneously, at the same rate, and at a constant mlz offset. The mlz offset is selected on the basis of known neutral elimination products (e.g., H20, NH3, CH3COOH, etc.) that may be particularly diagnostic of one or more compound classes that may be present in a sample mixture. The utility of the two compound class-specific scans (precursor ion and neutral loss) is illustrated in Fig. 11.17.

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