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Electrospray ionization of neutral complexes from non-polar solvents

Conference ·
OSTI ID:210687
; ;  [1]
  1. Pacific Northwest Lab., Richland, WA (United States)

The characterization of noncovalent complexes from solution using electrospray ionization (ESI) constitutes a new capability for mass spectrometry (MS). Observation of many types of charged complexes has been reported. However detection of neutral, noncovalent complexes becomes difficult using ESI-MS when the molecules (complexes) do not have ionizable groups or when they are insoluble/unstable in the more typically used solvents. The authors will show that the use of organic-soluble charge carriers such as tetraphenylphosphonium chloride (Ph{sub 4}PCl) or tetraphenylboron sodium (Ph{sub 4}BNa) presents a new strategy to facilitate ionization for these neutral noncovalent systems. A family of self-assembled aggregates have been designed based on the cyanuric acid{center_dot}melamine (CA{center_dot}M) hydrogen-bonded lattice. These noncovalent complexes have been characterized using a variety of techniques and the results indicated the formation of tight complexes in non-polar organic solvents with a range of stoichiometries. Studies by vapor pressure osmometry suggested, however, that the molecular weights were 50-80% higher than those expected for these stoichiometries.

OSTI ID:
210687
Report Number(s):
CONF-9505261--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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