Atmospheric Pressure Ionization Using a High Voltage Target Compared to Electrospray Ionization

Journal Article · Wed Feb 15 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1007/S13361-016-1537-3· OSTI ID:22777085

Lubin, Arnaud ^[1]; Bajic, Steve ^[2]; Cabooter, Deirdre; Augustijns, Patrick ^[3]; Cuyckens, Filip ^[1]

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1. Janssen Research and Development, Discovery Sciences (Belgium)
2. Waters Corporation (United Kingdom)
3. KU Leuven, Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences (Belgium)

A new atmospheric pressure ionization (API) source, viz. UniSpray, was evaluated for mass spectrometry (MS) analysis of pharmaceutical compounds by head-to-head comparison with electrospray ionization (ESI) on the same high-resolution MS system. The atmospheric pressure ionization source is composed of a grounded nebulizer spraying onto a high voltage, cylindrical stainless steel target. Molecules are ionized in a similar fashion to electrospray ionization, predominantly producing protonated or deprotonated species. Adduct formation (e.g., proton and sodium adducts) and in-source fragmentation is shown to be almost identical between the two sources. The performance of the new API source was compared with electrospray by infusion of a mix of 22 pharmaceutical compounds with a wide variety of functional groups and physico-chemical properties (molecular weight, logP, and pKa) in more than 100 different conditions (mobile phase strength, solvents, pH, and flow rate). The new API source shows an intensity gain of a factor 2.2 compared with ESI considering all conditions on all compounds tested. Finally, some hypotheses on the ionization mechanism, similarities, and differences with ESI, are discussed. .

• OSTI ID: 22777085
• Journal Information: Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, Vol. 28, Issue 2; Other Information: Copyright (c) 2017 American Society for Mass Spectrometry; http://www.springer-ny.com; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1044-0305
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

46 INSTRUMENTATION RELATED TO NUCLEAR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CYLINDRICAL CONFIGURATION
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
FLOW RATE
GAIN
IONIZATION
MASS SPECTROSCOPY
MOLECULAR WEIGHT
PROTONS
STAINLESS STEELS