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Fragmentation studies for the structural characterization of marine dissolved organic matter

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Abstract

High-resolution tandem mass spectrometry by collision-induced dissociation with a linear ion trap-Orbitrap has been performed on marine dissolved organic matter (DOM). Product ion spectra of selected precursor ions (m/z 359–375) have been acquired to obtain structural information, after method development. To evaluate the performance of the method, the Suwannee River fulvic acid (SRFA) reference standard was also analyzed. By reconstructing the individual product ion spectrum of marine DOM, several fragments were assigned to the different precursor ions indicating the presence of carboxyl, hydroxyl, lactones, quinones, esters, and structures more similar to lignin-degraded molecules. On the basis of these findings, coastal marine DOM molecules, although structurally homogeneous, might be more rich in diversity of functional groups than previously described.

Reconstructed product ion spectrum to assemble the DOM structure

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. J.A. Allué from Araclon Biotech for MS technical support and P. Eng. H. Constenla for developing the Excel macros for data treatment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mass Spectrometry Laboratory/Organic Pollutants, IDAEA-CSIC, Jordi Girona 18, 08034, Barcelona, Spain

    Nuria Cortés-Francisco & Josep Caixach

Authors
  1. Nuria Cortés-Francisco
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  2. Josep Caixach
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Josep Caixach.

Electronic Supplementary Material

A spread sheet data base in pdf format include all the assigned formulas for the precursor ions and fragments ions of marine DOM.

ESM 1

(PDF 131 kb)

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Cortés-Francisco, N., Caixach, J. Fragmentation studies for the structural characterization of marine dissolved organic matter. Anal Bioanal Chem 407, 2455–2462 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-8499-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-015-8499-3

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