Ammonia desorption chemical ionization mass spectrometry of phospholipids

✍ Scribed by D. Dessort; P. Bisseret; Y. Nakatani; G. Ourisson; M. Kates

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1983
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 219 KB
• Volume: 33
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-3084
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-3084(83)90026-9

✦ Synopsis

Ammonia desorption chemical ionization mass spectra (NH3-DCIMS) of phosphatidylsulfocholines, a mixture of a homologous series of phosphatidylsulfocholines (PSC) and a mixture of a PSC and a phosphatidylcholine (PC), were measured by a flash heating method involving introduction of 1/xg of the samples on a tungsten wire, quickly heated, into the ion source of a Finnigan 40(10/INCOS quadrupole instrument. It was possible to observe mass spectra during several seconds.

The first spectra recorded of the PSCs gave essentially only the quasi-molecular [M + 18] + peaks and the "A" (see text) peaks. Spectra of a mixture of three homologous PSCs clearly showed three pairs of the above peaks. In contrast spectra of the PCs gave principally the [M+ 1] + and the 'A' peaks after 2s so that one can distinguish the diagnostic peaks in a mixture of a PC and a PSC.

These results show that ammonia desorption chemical ionization by fast heating is a suitable technique for the characterization of some head groups of phospholipids as well as a promising method for the analysis of phospholipid mixtures.