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Bipolar Mass Spectrometry of Labile Coordination Complexes, Redox Active Inorganic Compounds, and Proteins Using a Glass Nebulizer for Sonic-Spray Ionization

Journal of The American Society for Mass Spectrometry volume 24, pages 1250–1259 (2013)Cite this article

Abstract

In this study, we report on the development of a novel nebulizer configuration for sonic-spray ionization (SSI) mass spectrometry (MS), more specifically for a version of SSI that is referred to as Venturi easy ambient sonic-spray ionization (V-EASI) MS. The developed nebulizer configuration is based on a commercially available pneumatic glass nebulizer that has been used extensively for aerosol formation in atomic spectrometry. In the present study, the nebulizer was modified in order to achieve efficient V-EASI-MS operation. Upon evaluating this system, it has been demonstrated that V-EASI-MS offers some distinct advantages for the analysis of coordination compounds and redox active inorganic compounds over the predominantly used electrospray ionization (ESI) technique. Such advantages, for this type of compounds, are demonstrated here for the first time. More specifically, a series of labile heptanuclear heterometallic [CuII 6LnIII] clusters held together with artificial amino acid ligands, in addition to easily oxidized inorganic oxyanions of selenium and arsenic, were analyzed. The observed advantages pertain to V-EASI appearing to be a “milder” ionization source than ESI, not requiring electrical potentials for gas phase ion formation, thus eliminating the possibility of unwanted redox transformations, allowing for the “simultaneous” detection of negative and positive ions (bipolar analysis) without the need to change source ionization conditions, and also not requiring the use of syringes and delivery pumps. Because of such features, especially because of the absence of ionization potentials, EASI can be operated with minimal requirements for source parameter optimization. We observed that source temperature and accelerating voltage do not seem to affect labile compounds to the extent they do in ESI-MS. In addition, bipolar analysis of proteins was demonstrated here by acquiring both positive and negative ion mass spectra from the same protein solutions, without the need to independently adjust solution and source conditions in each mode. Finally, the simple and efficient operation of a dual-nebulizer configuration was demonstrated for V-EASI-MS for the first time.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Meinhard and Elemental Scientific for providing nebulizers for this project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Chemical Processes Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of Crete, Voutes Campus, Heraklion, 71003, Greece

    Manolis M. Antonakis, Alexandra Tsirigotaki, Katerina Kanaki & Spiros A. Pergantis

  2. Division of Inorganic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Crete, Voutes Campus, Heraklion, 71003, Greece

    Constantinos J. Milios

Authors
  1. Manolis M. Antonakis
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  2. Alexandra Tsirigotaki
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  3. Katerina Kanaki
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  4. Constantinos J. Milios
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  5. Spiros A. Pergantis
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Correspondence to Spiros A. Pergantis.

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Antonakis, M.M., Tsirigotaki, A., Kanaki, K. et al. Bipolar Mass Spectrometry of Labile Coordination Complexes, Redox Active Inorganic Compounds, and Proteins Using a Glass Nebulizer for Sonic-Spray Ionization. J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 24, 1250–1259 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13361-013-0668-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13361-013-0668-z

Key words

  • Sonic-spray ionization mass spectrometry
  • Venturi easy ambient sonic-spray ionization
  • Coordination compounds
  • Oxyanions
  • Bipolar MS
  • Proteins