Gas-phase protomers of p-(dimethylamino)chalcone investigated by travelling-wave ion mobility mass spectrometry (TWIMS)

Ramu Erabelli, Sihang Xu, Athula B. Attygalle

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Results from ion-mobility (IM) separation experiments demonstrate that O- and N-protomers of p-(dimethylamino)chalcone (p-DMAC) can coexist in the gas phase. The relative populations of the two protomers strongly depend on the ion-generating settings and the conditions the precursor ions experience from the point of their gas-phase inception to the time of their detection. Under relatively dry source conditions, the ratio of the gas-phase protomers generated under helium-plasma ionization (HePI) conditions is biased towards the thermodynamically favored O-protomer. However, when the humidity of the enclosed ion source was increased, the IM arrival-time distribution profile of the mass-selected protonated precursor of p-DMAC changed rapidly to one dominated by the N-protomer. Under spray-ionization conditions, the formation of the thermodynamically less favored protomer has been generally attributed to a phenomenon called kinetic trapping. Herein, we demonstrate that the population of thermodynamically less favored N-protomer can be dramatically increased simply by introducing water vapor to the HePI ion source.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)954-962
Number of pages9
JournalJournal of Mass Spectrometry
Volume53
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2018

Keywords

  • TWIMS
  • chalcones
  • ion mobility
  • protomers
  • travelling wave ion mobility mass spectrometry

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